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Share Jesus – YEET?

Summers were made for movies! I recently went to watch the new release Spider Man: Far From Home. One scene in particular caught my attention. Two teenagers who just started dating are sitting beside each other on a bus. The couple is wrapped is up in their own little world because each is looking down playing on their phone. But then the teenage boy gets a text from his girlfriend that says “I miss you.” Without looking up or to the side (where his girlfriend is sitting), the boy replies back with a text that says, “I miss you too.”

Marvel has a way of displaying culture in a humorist way, but Marvel does this in a way that is also realistic. We laugh because we know the scene we are watching is real. The next generation has always had a fascination with themselves. Really, its just part of human nature. But with the advent of smart phones, it appears that the next gen’s preoccupation with themselves is now on steroids.

Not only does Gen Z speak a different language than everyone else (watch the above video), I am afraid Gen Z is losing the battle on knowing how to communicate with real people in a face to face conversation. It really isn’t a bad idea to offer the next generation a workshop on communication skills. The motive behind any workshop you offer should be the gospel. Sure, Gen Z is better with reaching Gen Z for Jesus online than older generations. But I still think there is value in Gen Z learning how to communicate the gospel face to face. Life is a balance and for the moment, life isn’t lived in a completely digital world.

Leaders, we must lead the way if we want the the next generation to learn how to share Jesus with others in a non-digital way. For example, I recently heard of a summer camp that asked for all of its students who received Christ to text in that they had made this all-important decision. What are we really communicating to our students when all we ask of them is to text us that they made the most important decision they ever could make in their life? The decision to follow Christ for the rest of one’s life should be a public declaration, not merely a set of private texts sent between two parties. After all, Jesus was publicly humiliated for our sin. He didn’t accomplish his work on the cross in a single text, tweet, or post. I think we owe Jesus more, but again leaders, that starts with you and I leading the way.

Let’s teach our students how to have out-loud conversations, how to communicate the gospel online and off-line, and that their faith should be public. At the same time, let’s learn the language of Gen Z so we can better speak into their lives!

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Somebody’s Watching Me

When leading a Student D-Group, an excellent tool to have in your bag of resources is a list of accountability questions. Christ-followers of all ages are responsible for keeping their brothers and sisters (in Christ) in check.

Taken from a combination of many sources, below is a list of accountability questions Student D-Group Leaders can ask students every week in their weekly D-Group meeting!

Pride

  1. Have you consciously or unconsciously created the impression that you are better than you are?
  2. Have you secretly wished for another’s misfortune so that you might excel?

Family

3. Are you giving your family only your emotional table scraps?

Above Reproach & Blameless

4. Have you exposed yourself to any sexually alluring material or allowed your mind to entertain inappropriate thoughts about someone of the opposite sex?

5. Have you done anything that compromised your integrity with the opposite sex?

Spiritual Disciplines

6. Are you faithfully involved with worship and service?

7. Are you giving time for the Bible to speak to you every day?

8. Are you enjoying prayer every day?

9. Is Christ real to you?

Self-Control

10. Are you a slave to work, hobbies, or your phone?

11. Is your pace of life sustainable?

12. Do you go to bed on time and get up on time?

13. Are you taking care of your body through physical exercise, proper eating, and sleeping habits?

Relationships & Anger

14. Have you allowed a person or circumstance to rob you of joy?

15. Is there anyone whom you fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold resentment toward, or disregard? If so, what are you doing about it?

16. Have you damaged another person by your words, either behind their back or face-to-face?

17. Have you passed on to another what was told to you in confidence?

Evangelism

18. When was the last time you spoke to someone about your faith?

Money

19. Are you praying about the money you spend?

Accountability

20. Do you have anything that you desire to keep secret?

21. Have you lied on any of your answers?

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Free E-Course

Christian Formation, Ministry, and Leadership

Madonna once sang the lyrics, “We are living in a material world.” I feel like I am living in the digital world. Technology has disrupted every industry, including the field of education.

I am proud to announce (on this Holy Week) that I am releasing a FREE eCourse on my blog site entitled “Christian Formation, Ministry, and Leadership.” You can locate the course on the far right tab found on the home page. You may be asking yourself, “What is an eCourse?” An eCourse is simply a class you take online. Many instructors charge students to take their eCourse. The good news for you, as it relates to this course, is you won’t be taking any tests and the good news for me is I won’t be grading any papers!

After I graduated seminary with my doctorate, I put together a series of lectures that relate to subjects of Christian formation, ministry, and leadership. I love all three of these fields and thus enjoyed compiling these lectures. If you do not have a passion for these three fields like I do, I can assure you that you will most likely not enjoy listening to my lectures.

However, if you do enjoy Christian formation (what I term as a combination of Christian education and spiritual formation), ministry, and leadership, I think you will like my lectures. You may only like one or two of the disciplines. If that is the case, I would encourage you to pick and choose which lectures you will listen to. For example, if you are a business leader, you may only want to listen to the lecture on leadership. If you are an adult pastor, you may want to listen to the lecture on adult ministry and the lecture on leadership. If you want to learn more about ministry in general, I think you will find yourself listening to many of these lectures!

I hope you enjoy listening to these lectures and I hope you find my lectures worthwhile of your time.

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New Booklet!

WHY NGM?

My latest booklet WHY NGM? has just been released on Amazon in print and digitally through Kindle! I should have published this booklet first. WHY? Because your “why” comes before your “what” or your “how.” Simon Sinek, the business guru, who wrote Start With Why is to be credited with discovering this principle. Starting with “why” doesn’t just work in business; it also works in ministry!

You may notice that what I once called “books,” I now call “booklets.” The reason I have changed terminology is because of none of my “books” were long. I find it more accurate to describe my writing’s as booklets. I also think that people do not read as much as people used to read and I know that people’s attention spans have shrunk. I believe people are much more likely to read my booklet than than they are to read my book.

It is time for me to get off of my soapbox and get back to telling you WHY I wrote this booklet. I had no intention to write a new booklet. However, I found myself hitting a roadblock. I knew I needed to do something to get my juices flowing! After seeking the Lord, I knew I needed to write this new booklet. However, I had no idea where I was going.

What I did know was that WHY NGM? was to serve a tri-fold purpose: (1) To encourage student pastors that were hurting, (2) To help ministers who had lost their way, and (3) To explain why next generation ministry is needed in the local church.

The first and second purposes go together. Many ministers who are hurting have lost their way. They have lost their “why.” I am amazed at the number of student pastors who are hurting and at the number of ministers (any type of pastor) who have lost their way. God has given me a heart for helping hurting ministers, especially student pastors.

The third purpose speaks to student pastors and ministers (specifically, pastors) who need to understand why converting to next generation ministry, a new model of student ministry, is important.

What ends up coming out of the booklet is even a surprise to me! The “why” that jumps off the pages is “to make our nation stronger.” I am not saying this “why” is the most important “why” found in next generation ministry. All I am saying is that even I was surprised how forcefully this “why” surfaces. I never sat down and began writing this booklet thinking of how much I was going to highlight our nation. It is just what happened.

That being said, I do believe next generation ministry makes a family, a church, and a nation stronger! If you would like to know more about next generation ministry, please read all of my booklets. I promise you they are short!

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Unravel

Chances are you have not heard the song above. If you have happened to hear the song on piano or guitar (or both), chances are you do not know the words of the song or even that the song had words.

The next generation is extremely talented! But sometimes they are saying things to us without saying them. Are you tuned into what they are saying even when they are not saying anything aloud? Just because some in the next gen may not talk does not mean they do not possess depth. It may just mean you need go deeper to tap into the vast wealth they do possess.

How can you tap into this wealth and help your students use it to influence the world for Christ. You must first spend time with your students. As you learn who your students are and what talents they possess, you will be well on your way in helping them to release their full potential.

The next generation are not a people to be managed. Rather, they are a resource to be developed! How are you investing in them? Are you a mentor or a micromanager? Level 2 won’t be achieved until have completed level 1. It doesn’t help to skip steps. Once the next gen sees you care, they will allow you to help them with the details of their life. This includes the spiritual disciplines and associated accountability they need to incorporate into their own Christian development. This is when and where you come in! In this way, their hurts become your help.

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Who am I?

J.D. Greear – God as Trinity – GO Conference 2019

“Who am I?” is a question the next generation has always asked of themselves. I’ve said this before, but I think the topic of gender identity will be of great concern for the church in the ages to come. However, putting aside gender identity, people have always struggled with finding out who they are.

It’s never been wrong to try and figure out who you are. The problem is most people try to accomplish this feat aside from God. You will never figure out who you are until you figure out who you are in Christ. In Christ, you are a new creation. In Christ, you are a son or daughter of God. In Christ, you are a child of God. In Christ, your sins are removed as far as the east is from the west. In Christ, you are the righteousness of God.

If someone is not in Christ, they may be physically alive, but according to the Bible, they are dead and lost in their trespasses. It makes sense that you can’t know who you are until you know who you are in Christ (that is, if Jesus really is God). Apart from your Creator, how can you, the created, figure out anything, much less anything so complex as the subject of who you are.

JD Greear, Pastor of the The Summit Church, recently spoke at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary’s GO Conference on “God as Father” and how that relates to one’s identity. I have never heard a greater address on the subject. Listening to the sermon in its entirety will be well worth your time. Simply click on the link above and be encouraged!

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The Value of Commitment

I recently shared some of the content in this post with my youth before Valentine’s Day: Ever been stood up for a date? I have. It is one of the worst feelings known to man. A double-minded man (or woman) is unstable in all his (or her) ways. If someone tells you, “Yes, I’ll be there” or “Yes, I’ll do that,” you expect that someone to be a person of their word. I know the hand-shake and “word is your bond” is all but gone in our society, but right is still right and wrong is still wrong.

Whenever you make a decision, you must first decide what decision you are going to make. In other words, you must weigh the options, analyze the pros and cons of all decisions on the table, and most importantly, pray about the decision you are making. Joining a D-Group or following Jesus is a huge decision. Your students are not just agreeing to meet with you for a year. They are agreeing to start their own D-Group after your year’s worth of meetings. Your students are agreeing to be discipled and to be a disciple-maker! Jesus had something to say on the matter (Luke 14:25-34). First, count the costs and then make the decision (in this case, surrender to His will).

When asked to do something, it’s ok to say no. Make sure your students know this. However, it’s not ok to say yes and then say no (Matt. 5:37). I recently worked seven days in a row without a day off. A couple of weeks before my loaded work week, a person had asked me to attend his event. I told the person I would be at his event. The problem was the person’s event was on my eighth day without rest. I didn’t want to go and didn’t feel like going, but I went because I said I would be there. In other words, I was committed. Discipleship works the same way. When you offer students an opportunity to join your D-Group, it is ok if they say no. But if or when a student quits a D-Group they committed to, the team is affected for the worse. This is why D-Groups often sign a group covenant before they begin. I have adapted Robby Gallaty’s adult D-Group Covenant into a Student D-Group Covenant below:

DISCIPLESHIP COVENANT

I will commit to the following expectations: 

I pledge myself fully to the Lord with the anticipation that I am entering a time of accelerated spiritual transformation. 

I will meet with my D-Group for approximately one hour every week, unless providentially hindered. 

I will complete all assignments on a weekly basis before my D-Group meeting, in order to contribute to the discussion. 

I will contribute to an atmosphere of confidentiality, honesty, and transparency for the edification of others in the group as well as my own spiritual growth. 

I will pray every week for other students who are on the discipleship journey with me. 

I will begin praying about replicating the discipleship process upon completion of this group. 

Signed Mentee ______________________________________ 

Signed Mentor ______________________________________ 

Date _____________________________ 

I would give a copy of this covenant to the youth’s parent/guardian(s) so that they know what their student is committing to and what they can be praying about/for. 

If you have committed to lead a Student D-Group (and are using my M.A.P.’s Journal), here are some more tips for leading (also read this previous post). First, studying the week’s selected passage using an ESV or CSB study bible is not a bad idea. Your job is not to lecture students (they don’t need or want another bible study), but to facilitate and guide D-Group discussion. However, giving an overview of the passage for the first five minutes is perfectly acceptable.

A friend of mine recently began using MAPS with his student group and says he and his students are loving it. My friend has found this discipleship resource to be practical and direct. Remember, MAPS was designed to be simple and flexible, giving the D-Group leader much freedom in adapting each lesson to meet his or her student’s needs. My friend has adapted the 4 W’s (Who, What, When, Where) into his weekly D-Group meeting. He has his students name who they need to reach out to, what they are going to do, and finally when and where they are going reach out, (i.e., take someone out to ice cream or strike up a conversation in the local gym). Students may not be ready to share the full-out gospel, but any student can take these first steps! Give your students a weekly assignment they are comfortable with and follow up each week.

My last tip for Student D-Group leaders is to teach your students to pray. Like growth in evangelism mentioned above, growing in prayer takes time too. Maybe your students are not ready to pray out loud for every student in their D-Group just yet (It’s awesome hearing yourself prayed for by 3-4 others in your D-Group). Start them out with something simpler such as the ACTS acronym (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication). Perhaps you give your student the outside assignment of asking a believer/unbeliever if that person has anything they can pray for them about. Once your D-Group students have learned to pray for each other’s needs out loud, it is great if prayer takes up 20 minutes of your meeting!

If you need more information or tips on leading D-Groups in general, click here.

Just make sure you’re all-in before you begin!

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REVEAL!

Ultrasound of my pastor’s baby

If you have followed me for any length of time, you know I have written much about milestones. The reason is because milestones in next generation ministry are both valued and celebrated. Brian Haynes lists seven legacy milestones in his book Shift that the church should partner with the home in celebrating. As a next generation pastor, I believe it is important that all next generation pastors create a next generation team (composed of the leaders of the preschool, children, student, and college teams). This next gen team needs to sit down together and map out how the milestones will be celebrated in the life of the church and then send this proposed plan to the senior pastor/church for approval.

The purpose of this post is not to discuss the milestones or the milestone process in the life of the family or church. I have spent enough time writing about milestones and or rite of passage events. The purpose of this post is to celebrate a milestone that is often overlooked. Before I get to that, let me first celebrate a personal milestone! This is my 100th blog post! In July of 2016, I stepped out in faith and began this website. I appreciate all of the website traffic and hope my next 100 posts will be better that the first. I am learning to celebrate moments and not just milestones!

Enough about me. What is the unseen milestone? It’s really quite simple when you think about it. Who in the next generation is unseen and overlooked? THE UNBORN. God says to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” King David penned something similar in Psalm 139:13-16, “For you formed my inward parts: you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, everyone of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

Can you catch David’s passion for the unborn? David knew the unborn were wonderfully made and the unborn were a wonderful work of the Lord. He says he knew this fact very well! David knew that the days for the born were formed before birth. Catch this! David is not celebrating the unborn as much as he is celebrating the one who created the unborn. God gets the glory! This is important for us to understand. As important as it is to celebrate milestones in our lives, it is more important to celebrate the life giver of those milestones. Without God, nothing would be possible because we wouldn’t even exist. God not only creates us and the world, but he sustains both (Gen. 1:1, Col. 1:16-17).

When the unborn are killed, it breaks my heart. When the governor of Virginia speaks of killing the just born, I am grieved even more. Abortion and infanticide are both wrong. Do these murderers really believe they are going to get away with what they have done? I am understanding of abortion in special circumstances where the doctor says either the mother or the baby is going to die. But, I am not talking about special circumstances. Let’s stop with all of the excuses and call abortion out for what it is. It’s never fun to celebrate death. That’s why celebrating the unborn life, those in the womb, should be a special occasion!

My church celebrated this milestone this past Sunday! My pastor and his wife created a quick post-sermon milestone event called “Reveal.” They got in front of everyone at the end of the morning worship service holding a huge black balloon with the words “he or she.” The whole church was about to find out the gender of the unborn baby. When my pastor and his wife popped the balloon, streaming blue paper went everywhere. It’s a boy!

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Family Worship vs. Worship as Family

Google the words “family worship” and you can discover some great resources that describe what family worship is and the importance (and even requirement) of having family worship. For example, a Ligonier article entitled “Family Worship 101” by William Boekenstein defines family worship as the regular use of Scripture, song, and prayer by a family unit, guided by the head of the household.

Lately, I have been equipping parents with resources to lead their children (including teens) in family devotions. Family devotions is not the same as family worship although family devotions are a form of worship. Family devotions should only last about ten minutes a night. You can find many resources that will help you lead daily devotions for your family. Family worship might also be every night but is a bit lengthier than ten minutes. For instance, some families have been known to have family worship for 30 minutes a night (excluding church days or a once a week family day). Is there a happy medium? I think so! I would suggest families planning a “family night.” Family nights last up to an hour long and incorporate a time to eat, play, study, and pray together. I don’t know of any better resource for family nights than GenOn Ministries “Family ’round the table” curriculum. Family night is definitely family worship!

But should family worship take the place of worship as family? When I say “worship as family,” I mean families attending their weekly congregational worship together. The answer to this question is no! Family worship at home should not take the place of family worship at church or vice versa. Both churches and families should partner together in making disciples of the next generation (Deut 6:6-7, Ps 78:5-7, Acts 2:46; 5:42, Ephesians 6:4, 2 Tim 3:15). This is the way it always has been in the Bible. Family discipleship should take place in the church and in the home. Simply put, families should have a time of worship together at home and in the church. Healthy churches help make healthy homes and healthy homes help make healthy churches!

Fathers or single-parent mothers (as head of the household), let’s be honest. Family worship is often the exception and not the rule. Most families worship at church but family worship at home is found wanting. Donald Whitney has an excerpt in his book, Family Worship which says, “I am persuaded from my own ministry experience in hundreds of churches that so little family worship regularly exists in Christian homes today, that even in our best churches, most of our best men do not even pray with their wives (and children if they have them) much less lead them in ten minutes or so of worship as family . . . God deserves to be worshiped daily in our homes by our families.”

Barna Research echoes Whitney, “Eighty-five percent of parents with children under age 13 believe they have primary responsibility for teaching their children about religious beliefs and spiritual matters. However, a majority of parents don’t spend any time during a typical week discussing religious matters or studying religious materials with their children . . . Parents generally rely upon their church to do all of the religious training their children will receive.”

This atrocious trend of families relying on the church to meet all of its spiritual needs must come to an end. Equally important, ministry leaders must stop trying to do all of the family’s work. Ministry leaders, please equip your families with resources for leading worship at home. Families, as you begin worshipping at home, you will notice that worship at church becomes that much sweeter! And in-turn ministry leader, you will notice your burdens at church becoming lighter (Matt 11:28-30).

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Time for a retreat?

I recently attended a retreat with the purpose of discussing the book Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Gieger and the book Gen Z by James Emery White. Simple Church is a book written many years ago that revolutionized many American churches. Gen Z was a book that once I started reading, I could not put down.

Retreats are good for anyone, but especially ministers. If you are a ministry leader, make sure you make time to schedule a spiritual retreat on a regular basis. Retreats should be restful but also prayer-full. You should walk away from a retreat with new insights and renewed devotion. Below was my takeaway!

Having focused so much on discipleship as of late, it was a breath of fresh air to be reminded of the missional movement that took place before the big push on the importance of having Discipleship Groups. I want to thank Robby Gallaty and his Replicate Ministries Team for highlighting the need for D-Groups in local churches. No doubt, the church needs to be making disciples! But my retreat takeaway was the reminder that local churches also need to be making missionaries! It is not either/or, but both/and. Every member needs to be a disciple-maker and every member needs to be a missionary. No matter your location or vocation, you are a missionary. But you are a disciple-maker too! Let’s not talk about one without the other. This insight was confirmed to me when I got home and read the postscript (written 5 years after the book was released) of Simple Church:

“They (simple churches) seek to move people to a place of living a missional life. Discipleship to these churches is not information, but transformation. And a true disciple is someone who seeks to transform the community around him. A disciple understands he is a missionary. These churches streamline their programming to create space in the lives of their people to live as a disciple/missionary in their community.”

Well put Thom! Let’s be missional, but let’s also make disciples. Another takeaway from Simple Church that I walked away with was the need for one-word church vision statements. Members can remember one word statements better than they can remember two! Your vision statement can and should be aligned for all ministries in your church, including your next generation ministry!

Here are three words I formulated for a possible vision statement at my church: (1) Become, (2) Connect, (3) Develop. Step 1 in our discipleship process would be Become a church member (in our Worship Service). Step 2: Connect with others (in a small group such as Sunday school/Life group). Step 3: Develop into a disciple (D-Group). Don’t forget what I just wrote: Disciples must be missional! I differ with Thom and Eric in making ministry teams the third step. But suffice to say, if disciples are being made, they will be serving on ministry teams.

And catch this! Don’t get so tied up in the process that you miss the people. If a person comes to your church out of order, who cares? In the culture we live in, getting a person to come to church on any day/night of the week is a win! Having a discipleship process is important, but it is not more important than the people who the process was created for. We desire for people to follow the steps, but if they don’t, I’m just happy they came!