Well, the title of this post is in reference to the 5 leader goal. We’re getting what we ask for. In the past two weeks we’ve had 3 new potential leaders “stop by” The Branch and express interest in serving. We are pumped! However, we’re also reminded of that saying, “Be careful what you wish for.”

Just in the past two weeks, I’ve realized how much training and coaching has to go into these new leaders. I’ve realized how much more the team needs to be organized and prioritized now. I’ve realized how more the dynamic of every aspect of our ministry will now change. It’s a bit overwhelming to say the least.

Getting what you ask for is exciting. But at the same time, if you aren’t prepared, you’re going to feel like you’re being buried alive. That’s kind of how it feels right now. Exciting and… buried.
___________________

In the coming post, if there is a coming post, I’d like to talk about how we managed to bring in such a quick influx of adults to serve in the ministry and how we are organizing the ministry in light of that fact.

I read a book about writing “personal narrative essays” that inspired me to write.

I’m on vacation.

I’m super excited about some things that have been happening on our church leadership team. 2 things, actually:

1. Church Transformation Network- The Assemblies of God (the denomination that our church is affiliated with) has begun a systematic church revitalization training.  I won’t get into all the details, but it allows pastors and their leadership teams to take a one-year journey of assessment, redefining mission, implementing careful strategy, and so on, in order to function as a healthy local church that is fulfilling the Great Commission.  We’re on the journey, and there is serious momentum going on.  You can learn more about it here.

2. 7 Practices of Effective Ministry- I’ve fallen in love with North Point Ministries’ “7 Practices of Effective Ministry”, which are explained in detail in a book of the same name and in a series of podcasts called “Practically Speaking.”  These practices are changing the way I do ministry. We just started working through the first practice as a leadership team.  The practice is called “Clarify the Win”, and basically teaches that churches need to define what success is for themselves, and then clarify that win at every level of the organization.

I strongly recommend checking out the podcasts on iTunes or at PracticallySpeaking.org. Each one is around 30 minutes long, but is packed with content.  I’ve listened to each one several times because it’s such rich material.

Even as we’ve applied the first practice in our youth ministry setting, it’s given us such freedom to do youth ministry with great focus, and has allowed us the opportunity to celebrate a few simple wins.

That’s all for now.  This blog is rising from the ashes.  I’m back from my leave.

This is why I haven’t posted in about two weeks.  My son.  Jonah.  Isn’t he awesome?  He was born last week, January 31st.  Kristen and I are very excited, and I’m a little overwhelmed.  I think my brain is shifting into daddy mode, but it feels like I’m going to explode.

Thank you for your patience as I take a little break from blogging to get into dad mode.  Oh.  He’s crying. Gotta run.

A TEAM

Since I started at my current role as youth pastor, I’ve had the desire to replace myself with a team.  At this point, we have two adults that are in the process of being trained for the ins and outs of youth ministry.  They need to be equipped and empowered to manage the youth group and care for the students in the absence of the youth pastors.

A CONGREGATION

Youth ministry is really (ideally) a ministry of the whole church body, not a ghetto of the local church.  One important task of the youth pastor is to cast vision and empower the congregation to love the kids in their midst. Are your Sunday morning services reflective of how much the church values young people?  Are the people who make up your local church being empowered to replace you as a caring presence in the lives of teenagers?

A PERSON

Obviously your church has the final word about who replaces you if the time ever comes for you to leave.  But how much easier will that transition be for the church, the kids, and the new “guy” if there is a point-person that you’ve poured into and trained to do what you do.

I think the one big objection that gets in a pastor’s way when thinking about replacing himself is, “I want to be committed to the church.”  But I think  that if you really want to be committed to the church, no matter what, you need to prepare for the often unexpected event of your departure.  Expect to stay forever.  But empower people as if your stay was over.

Me and Kristen went to a one day Orange Forum with Reggie Joiner several months ago. Reggie brought some awesome insights into church ministry.

One of the things that I gravitated towards was “thinking in upgrades.”  He said it’s important to always be thinking in terms of upgrades.  What’s the next step in moving this ministry forward?

He brought out an old Apple computer.  Real boxy.  Real old school.  Then he picked up this FedEx envelope and spoke about how Apple made many small upgrades over time and eventually came to todays technology.  He opened up the FedEx envelope and pulled out a new MacBook.  He explained that Apple didn’t instantly go from the old boxy computer to the MacBook Pro.  They made hundreds of upgrades over many years.

We’re not supposed to cause change in the church (or in our lives) overnight, but we must continue to upgrade.  If we do not move forward, we’ll focus on the same problems, the same issues, for so long that we will begin to stagnate.

So, this week… What do you need to upgrade?

“As busy, active, relevant ministers, we want to earn our bread by making a real contribution.  This means first and foremost doing something to show that our presence makes a difference.  And so we ignore our greatest gift, which is our ability to enter into solidarity with those who suffer.” (Nouwen, The Way of the Heart, 34)

I’m a year and a half in to full-time pastoral student ministry.  And the things that I seem to hold up most proudly are things that are easily measurable on the surface.  The ministry’s web presence, videos, stickers, youth center renovations, graphic design stuff… I want people to see the stuff that shows that my presence makes a difference.  I want to create ministry momentum by “putting up lights” instead of doing the deep work of entering into solidarity with people.  The work of truly wading into the deep, often murky waters of the adolescent world.  Or anyone’s world for that matter.

I’ve done a great job of striving to show that my presence matters.  But it’s time to do the real work of presence and attentive compassion.

In “The Way of the Heart”, Henri Nouwen says the following about programming, or as he calls it, “organizing”:

“Ministers frequently find themselves in fierce competition with people and institutions who offer something more exciting than they do.  But our task is the opposite of distraction.  Our task is to help people concentrate on the real but often hidden event of God’s active presence in their lives.  Hence, the question that must guide all organizing activity in a parish is not how to keep people busy, but how to keep them from being so busy that they can no longer hear the voice of God who speaks in silence… Organizing can be seen as the creation of a space where communion becomes possible and community can develop.” (63-64)

Programming is bad only when it is NOT in the context of creating sacred space.  The kind of programming that has bells and whistles and no place to find God-with-us.  Or the kind that has no bells and whistles, but is just over-scheduled and creates no room for finding God, each other, or ourselves.

I think Nouwen is on to something.  Silence is, of course, a very scary thing.  It’s counter-cultural, and not in any hip kind of way.  You don’t see MTV making a “be more silent” app for the iPhone.  Program some silence.  Become a “space creator” where people can find communion and community.

When you’re leading a congregation, do you have to leave your own expression of prayer back at home?  Is there ever an appropriate time to do that?

I feel like I’m finally finding a spirituality (solitude, silence, and prayer of the heart) that makes sense with my life, my personality, and is transferable to my own youth ministry context.  And it feels great.

Try taking a personality test (like this one) and when you get results, see what that might be saying about the best form of spirituality for you, and think about how to be integrous by incorporating it into your day to day ministry life.

A RUNDOWN
In this short but powerful book (100 pages), Henri Nouwen prescribes the spirituality of the Desert Fathers (solitude, silence, and hesychastic prayer) as an important guide for the life of the modern minister who is often driven by compulsion, surrounded constantly by a wordy world, and who is often pressured into an harried, over-intellectual prayer life.

KEY INSIGHTS
- After the world was “converted” in the 4th century, the world was no longer the Christian’s enemy, so the Desert Fathers became the “enemy” of the world through these disciplines.  The purpose was to continue being formed in Christ’s image instead of slowly and passively being formed in the world’s image.

- Through solitude we unhook ourselves from our constant need to distinguish and prove ourselves, our false selves slowly die, and we come to the One who calls us “beloved.”

-Solitude does not alienate people.  On the contrary, it enables us to truly be with people with no agenda, just compassion.

-Words are so overabundant today that they have lost their meaning, credibility, and creative power.  In order to redeem the word, we must enter into silence as a kind of portable cell of solitude.  We must convert what we experience as an empty silence into a full, rich silence.

-Silence can be used in preaching, counseling, and programming as a way of creating an “abode” where we can meet with God  and each other.

-The “shoulds” of prayer cannot cause us to pray.  We must embrace the prayer of the heart (“hesychia”), where we enter with the mind into the heart to meet God there.

-Leading people to the heart and presence of God is the essence of both prayer and ministry.

PERSONAL ACTION STEPS
1. Practice this trinity of disciplines (silence, solitude, and hesychastic prayer) every week.

2. Incorporate silence into everyday ministry, including preaching, counseling, and programming.

QUOTES
- “Solitude is not a private therapeutic place.  Rather, it is the place of conversion, the place where the old self dies and the new self is born…” (27)

-”Precisely because our secular milieu offers so few spiritual disciplines, we have to develop our own.” (30)

-”It is folly for a man who has a dead person in his house to leave him there and go to weep over his neighbors dead.” (36)

-”I have often repented of having spoken but never of having remained silent.” (43)

-”If he is not edified by my silence, he will not be edified by my speech.” (44)

-”The question that must guide all organizing activity in a parish is not how to keep people busy, but how to keep them from being so busy that they can no longer hear the voice of God who speaks in silence.” (63)

-”Organizing [programming] can be seen as the creation of a space where communion becomes possible and community can develop.” (64)

-”If the public prayers of ministers inside as well as outside of church buildings are any indication of their prayer life, God is certainly busy attending seminars.” (74)

-”Such a simple repeated prayer can slowly  empty out our crowded interior life and create the quiet space where we can dwell with God.” (82)

Reflections to follow.  Thanks for reading, commenting, subscribing.

If you want a great layout for how to read and review books, check out this article by Michael Hyatt.