I decided to get a part-time job this summer and make some more income. Alright so that’s not entirely true. I make a decent income doing what I do here at Bethel. I was asked to umpire behind the plate this summer for our little league games. Last night was my third game behind the plate. I’m actually having a lot of fun doing it. It’s not too stressful and hey and extra couple hundred bucks at the end of the season is alright with me. I’m thinking of using the extra money to get a new tattoo…maybe start a half sleeve. Just kidding mom!
I have been reminded of some things about working alongside of parents over the past three games and I think they apply to student ministry as well. So here there are;
Parents will rip you apart: Unfortunately this goes along with some church parents as well. i can honestly say that in my first year here at Bethel this hasn’t happened to me yet – but I know it will. In some ways I welcome it. I’m not perfect and I make mistakes like everyone else. Iw ill always be the first one to acknowledge that upfront. I like constructive criticism. When a parent comes to rip you apart remember that there is something valid in what they are saying. Sure maybe not everything is factual or correct but dig through what they said and see where the truth in it is. I have found that everytime a parent comes to me there is at least 1 small thing to take away from the interaction. Be loving and generous even in those difficult conversations…you may even win a new fan to your corner.
Be ready to help a student out: While calling balls and strikes behind the plate I am able to help ‘coach’ (in a limited capacity) the kids from both teams whether they are at bat or playing a position on the field. I am working with 1st-6th graders so I am reminded that i have to be gentle with them and do my best to help make them better students of baseball – it’s a huge learning process. The same is true in student ministry. We are here to help our students along and soemtimes even call balls (close calls) and strikes (pointing out times when they are blatantly not following Christ). It gets ugly but we need to do so lovingly. It’s our job to come alongside of the parents and help them coach their students through their faith. Just like, as the umpire, it’s not my job to coach the kids on my own but to help the coaches help their teams abide by the rules in the book – so it goes with us as youth pastor’s/ leaders.
Humble pie: I have made some questionable calls in my first 3 games – there is no doubt about it. Some of the coaches and parents have let me know as well. I have ate some humble pie over a few of my calls – but I let the call stand. When is the last time you had to eat a good ‘ole piece of humble pie in ministry? I bet it was pretty bitter and hard to swallow wasn’t it? As youth pastor’s/ leaders it is essential for us to recognize times when we need to take a huge bite out of the pie of humility – sometimes even when we know we are right. Sometimes we have to lay aside our pride and save the relationship as long as it doesn’t hurt or tarnish our integrity. How are you at being humble? When is the last time you apologized to a parent or student?
We’re on the same team: As an umpire I want to help both teams play to their best ability by enabling the rules in a fair way for both sides. As youth pastor’s/ leaders we are on the same team as the parents in our churches. Do we act like it? Do we interact with them and let them know that we are wanting to help them coach their student along in their faith journey? Even as I write this I know there are parents I know I need to interact with better so this is a good reminder for myself as well. How are you doing with your parents? Maybe it’s time to eat some humble pie and restore that relationship with those you may not get along the best with.
I think these are 4 principles that can help us in youth ministry. Sometimes ministry isn’t easy or glamorous – but then again if you’re looking for ease and glamor in ministry maybe you aren’t in the right calling.
Filed under: Bethel Baptist, faith, student ministry , baseball, student ministry, umpiring
I am getting excited as fall is really not that far away. We are making a big change within our student ministry here at Bethel. All 22 of our 8th graders will be freshman next year leaving us with 1 7th grader going into the 8th grade and maybe 3-4 sixth graders going into the 7th grade. So we have made the decision to combine the middle school and high school ministries next year. This really was a team effort from the leadership team of BSM (Bethel Student Ministries).
I know there are some questions and some logistical things to consider and talk about and those will be addressed in the coming months. Here are some reason we are making the change:
Outreach: One of the MAJOR reasons we are making this move is so we can be more outreach focused with CHAOS (high school ministry). Wednesday nights are still considered ‘church’ night in our area and sports practices are out early so kids can go to church. This really opens up our potential base for students coming in over Sunday nights where we compete with open gym at the high school.
Sunday nights: We miss 50% of the Sunday nights through the year becuase of different church functions where we can’t have youth group becuase of an event or meeting going on. We will move our discipleship groups to Sunday nights. Hopefully some of our groups will make the choice to meet on other nights or even possibly in the morning before school.
Leadership: We want our juniors and seniors to be able to step up and have leadership opportunities over our middle school students. We want our middle school students to see that you can be sold out for Christ, make a difference and still be cool while doing it. This is where our older students can step up and have a bigger impact on the lives of younger students.
Overall we feel this change is vitally important to the health of BSM. As leaders we are excited about this change. We are even already planning a back to school bash for this next fall. A concert of sorts and already have one confirmed band to come and play. It’s going to be a great night for our students to bring their friends to to not only have fun but also hear the Gospel from someone much cooler than me.
Filed under: Bethel Baptist, concerts, faith, student ministry , studen ministry
I came across a post on Joel Rosenberg’s blog that caught my attention. I have heard that President Obama is trying to persuade Israel to divide Jerusalem. I can’t help but think that we have every right to be scared of what President Obama is trying to do. Joel Rosenberg has put in a lot of research to the middle east and the end times and he hits this one right on I think. Here’s a piece of his post;
While I am not surprised by where the President is headed, I am horrified nonetheless. Right at the moment when the U.S. and Israel need to be working with Arab states in unity against the Iranian nuclear threat, this White House is systematically turning against Israel. Despite all the smiles and boilerplate rhetoric from senior administration officials over the last few days that Prime Minister Netanyahu has been in town — promising to stand with Israel and maintain her security — what the administration is actually advancing in terms of policy is dangerous and destabilizing. They are playing with fire, and they must be publicly and peaceably challenged and resisted.
It seems asthough we are seeing some things ussured in that should scare us – but also confirm that prophecy is still coming true today.
Go here and check it out. It’s worth reading.
Filed under: Jesus, faith , Israel
I have been working on a song for about a month now. I now have the first verse and chorus done. I always feel funny writing songs. There’s only so many ways we can sing of our love to God. I actually really like how this one is flowing so far. I do this mostly for me to continue to sharpen my musical skills. It is far from being done. It’s still pretty rough and it’s a different vocal style than what I am used to. I like it – but hey I’m supposed to guess. Here’s what I have for lyrics so far;
verse 1:
we’ve come to lift the name of Christ
we’ve come to honor the Most High
we come calling on Your name
we’ve come expecting great things
let our praises rise to you
let our praises rise to You
as we sing
chorus:
Holy, holy are you God
Worthy, worthy is the lamb
You’re faithful, just and true
Holy, holy are you God
Eventually it may have a second verse. Possibly a bridge. It’s still in it’s early form. So far though I’m liking it.
Filed under: music, worsihp
I started my blog about 2 years ago in hope that it would be centered around all thing youth ministry. It has obviously strayed from that a bit. So here’s the deal. From here on it will be more focused that it has in the past on youth ministry and worship related things. Oh it will still have my completely random posts in the mix as well. I was just sitting on my porch tonight and thought, “You know this could still be a good youth ministry blog.”
So here’s to hoping what i can become. You never know right?
Filed under: Uncategorized
I have been waiting to make a post on the music of the RHMA conference we went to last week. I had to really have a better attitude about it honestly. So I have done some thinking and praying about it and here is my honest criticism of the way the music was done there. I understand that music is subjective and everyone is entitled to doing it their way. I know I take some liberties once in a while but something about it just rubbed me the wrong way. I loved the speakers at the conference but I found myself having to do a lot of praying through the times of music.
I know I am not the best worship leader. I do know the difference between leading songs and leading worship though. I really didn’t feel like we were being lead in worship. Maybe I’m being too critical but our staff felt the same thing.
The leader just seemed to be very degrading towards us the whole time. It seemed like we were being talked down to at each session when it was time for the songs. He talked at one point about how we change songs and speed them up and how it was ‘blasphemous’ to do that. Then we sang a modern song that was originally composed at a moderately fast pace has as fast as it was written. Have you ever sung ‘Open The Eyes of My Heart Lord’ at the same pace as a song like ‘As The Deer’? We did. I thought it was blasphemous to change a song like that?
At one point in the week an announcement was made to turn all phones off becuase some community people came the night before and left them on. Then the song leader went into one of the ‘quiet rooms’ at the host church and left his ringer on and talked on the phone through a sessions while people in attendance at the conference were trying to sit and take in what the speakers were saying.
The thing that really irritated me was when I was called ‘ignorant’ from the stage becuase I don’t know what it means to “raise my Ebeneezer.” I was so mad when he said, “and they changed these words in the hymnal becuase some people are ignorant and don’t know what it means.” I was so mad. To take shots at people from a point when you’re supposed to be leading into the presence of God I just couldn’t take it. I am thinking of writing a letter to the RHMA organization about it. It just really bothered us while we were there.
The whole week we sang songs from old revivals. Now I love hymns….I really do. But there are some great modern revival songs that have been written. We never once sang any of those which I thought was ironic since they were talking about sparking a modern day revival. The way the music was done just rubbed me wrong all week. Other than that it was a great conference and I would like to go back.
Filed under: worsihp , conferences, RH, RHMA
We (the pastoral staff) attended the RHMA Pastor’s Conference last week in Morton, IL. While we were there we had the priviledge in meeting Walter Kaiser.
I had heard a lot about Dr. Kaiser while I was in Ogallala. Every time Eric knew he was speaking at a Mid-West E-Free meeting he would encourage us to go and listen to him. I wish I had now. When you think of great theologias often times I think they will be hard to understand when they speak. Dr. Kaiser has a great delivery method and is a great communicator. Dr. Kaiser is a very smart man and is a heavy hitter in doctrine and theology, especially in the Evangelical Free world as he was a seminary professor at Trinity Evangelical School of Divinity for many years. Tuesday morning in the second session we were sitting in the row in front of Dr. Kaiser. There was a joke made about Teddy Kennedy and Martha’s Vineyard and Dr. Kaiser and Jay were the only 2 laughing at it and an immediate bond was made. Dr. Kaiser leaned up and said something to Jay and they began talking. We talked to him at a few of the breaks. He is a really nice 76 year old man.
At supper we were sitting down and Dr. Kaiser and his wife saw us and came over and asked if they could sit with us. It was pretty cool having supper with him listening to him talk just about life in general. He has a great sense of humor. Eventually Jay asked him if he would be willing to do a seminar on revival here in Newell and he said he would be interested in it.
It seemed like every time we turned around the Kaiser’s were right there after that point. Wednesday evning we had supper with his oldest son and him and I were able to talk about youth ministry. He has a pretty cool story of how their youth ministry started within the church he is currenty at. It sounds like God is doing some really amazing things there right now in the live of their church and their youth.
Honestly Kaiser was my favorite over Blackaby. For being 76 he still has a lot of energy and his humor his funny…but more than that you can tell he is a man who loves God, His Word and teaching it.
Filed under: leadership , doctrine, revival, RHMA, teaching, theology, Walter aiser
I received an email from International Messengers yesterday. IM is the organization I went to Poland through. I felt horrible for being sick and was wondering how God would use me. This email confirms that he used me in some big ways for the missionaries. I was so humbled and excited to get this email. Here it is below;
Dear Chris and Leadership of Bethel Baptist Church;
WE wanted to pass on our sincere appreciation for the work that Chris did at our recent annual missionary staff conference in Poland. He led the worship team with integrity and a sensitivity that made it all work, merging musicians from different country locations on short notice. We’re grateful for the humility and God-honoring heart that Chris had in his style of leading worship for our missionary group. It was a job well done, and we so appreciate how Chris worked through his cold & illness to get the work done in a Spirit-filled way.
Thank you for allowing him to come. Thanks, Chris, for the excellent work amongst us. May the Lord bless your ministry there and greatly increase your tribe!
In Christ’s care and grace,
Darwin and Darlis Anderson
This was a really cool email to get. I am honored to have been able to go and minister to the missionaries in the way that I did. I would love to do something like this again someday.
Filed under: Uncategorized , International Messangers, Poland, worship
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