t-blog

Have you come to the realization yet that the older you get, the less you know? Or maybe it’s the more you know, the more there is to learn? Either way, humility finds us all. After a few decades of schooling, I am more aware that there’s a ton of stuff that I don’t know.

The idea that we can arrive and reach the learning ceiling is absent from every biblical principle from Genesis to Revelation. I think the most obvious passage that comes to my mind is from Philippians 3:12. No one would disagree that Paul’s life was remarkable (and that’s an understatement).

But this verse reveals that Paul’s goal was to never stop growing in his knowledge of & fellowship with Christ until the Lord called him home to glory. This goal was enveloped in his high calling found only in Christ. That’s why I am convinced that no disciple of Jesus Christ can ever say that they have completed their learning and training…ever! We are found most faithful when we pursue the high calling and keep growing in our knowledge of & fellowship with Christ.

Youth & family ministry is ever morphing and sending new challenges to church leaders. My admonishment is that we never stop learning and growing in our high calling until our Lord calls us to glory. With so many ways to access digital resources, there’s no excuse for neglecting your growth in your calling.

Resources in youth & family ministry abound, yet are sometimes just out of reach (meaning not always free). I want to encourage you to tap into 18 audio sessions from reInvent 2011, our conference for youth & family ministry leaders. Pass them on to your leadership team. Spend time talking through the key points and be challenged & encouraged to keep learning and growing. With one stop, you’ll find encourage and training from leading voices in youth & family ministry on topics like:

• laying the foundation for effective youth ministry: a youth ministry strategy

• mobilizing your students to be on mission…everywhere!

• helping your students navigate the landscape of American spirituality

• from ideas to execution: aligning your strategy with your resources

• sustainable youth ministry

• reaching the skeptics in your student ministry

• intentional youth ministry…how programs accomplish the mission of your student ministry

• teaching teens to filter their media choices

• building an effective youth ministry leadership team

• leading your students to reach their friends with the Gospel

• navigating youth ministry landmines & living to tell about it

• international student ministry…in your community

• building a small group curriculum plan

• kids hurt, Christ heals: ministering to teens in crisis

• a theology of youth ministry

Life is full a crossroads. Critical decisions come at pace that often finds us unprepared. How do you make the hard decisions or even the urgent decisions that face you? No one makes a decision to intentionally hurt ourselves or those we care about. But we all make decisions based on a set of values. None of us make decisions in a worldview vacuum.

If our values influence our decisions, what do our teenage sons and daughter value? Relationships? Media? Acceptance? Approval? Faith? Gadgets? Freedom? Money? Popularity? Teenagers will make decisions based on whether or not they will have more Facebook friends.

To see what teenagers value, just take a look at what you value. Our children will establish a pattern of decision making will look like that of their parents. Everyday, Christian parents make decisions based on social status, financial benefit, and leadership positions. Can you see the pattern? All too often we make decisions based on what will be the best for US! Our teenagers are doing the same thing.

If it is our desire to shape a Christian worldview in the lives of our, then our life decisions must be based on one thing only–the truth of God’s Word. Jesus asked the question,  “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say?” (Luke 6:46, HCSB). “Being a Christian means being a person who labors to establish his beliefs, his dreams, his choices, his very view of the world on the truth of who Jesus is and what he has accomplished” (Josh Harris, Dug Down Deep). The preeminent value for all decision-making in the Christian life is the Word of Truth.

With that in mind, here’s Rule #2 for Shaping a Christian Worldview in Your Teenager. Let your children see you looking for answers in God’s Word? That includes decisions to change jobs, make major purchases, vacationing, or choosing a school for your children, managing your finances, serving at your church, and wrestling with physical trials. Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path (Psalm 119:105, HCSB).

Parents should design a standard practice for decision-making that can be transferred to their teenagers. When you are faced with a life decision…

1. Begin with prayer and ask God for His wisdom.
2. Then study to find biblical principles to guide your decision.
3. Make the decision that follows the truth of God’s Word.

Remember, shaping a Christian worldview at home is neither easy nor fast. It requires intentional steps and a lifelong commitment. But the rewards are eternal.

Teenagers with a biblically grounded Christian worldview do not just happen, they must be built. “In the absence of biblical formative instruction, secular formative instructors take over. Our hearts are easily captivated by the hollow and deceptive philosophy of a godless culture.[1] The task of building a Christian worldview in the lives of our teenage children is a proactive one. It is not to be attempted passively. Before construction begins, parents and church leaders must have a blueprint. The powerful thing about a blueprint is that it allows the builder and the future residents to see how things should look from perspective of the architect.

If parents desire to build a Christian worldview in the lives of their teenagers, they must translate the dynamic truth of the Gospel into the daily trek of real life. Once again, we are faced with deciding to be intentional or reactive. One leads to building a Christian worldview the other leads to watching someone else build it.

But before construction begins, parents must take some time for a little personal reflection and lay out a strategy for shaping a christian worldview at home through what I call 8 Simple Rules for Shaping a Christian Worldview at Home.

In her recent book, Almost Christian: What the Faith of teenagers Is Telling the American Church, Kenda Dean states that “most teenagers are perfectly content with their religious worldviews; it is churches that are—rightly—concerned. So we must assume that the solution lies not in beefing up congregational youth programs or making worship more “cool” and attractive, but in modeling the kind of mature, passionate faith we say we want young people to have.”

The key to shaping a Christian worldview is this. You have to be a Christian worldview before you can teach a Christian worldview. Your kids will learn more from your life than your words.

With this in mind, here is Rule #1: In every situation ask, “Does this honor God?” Your teenager must see you evaluating every situation and decision with a concern for what will bring glory to God. That means that you have to ask (not just in your mind) if God will be glorified in this vacation to the Grand Canyon or how will God get the glory if you by a new car. The biblical foundation for this rule is centered on 1 Corinthians 10:31. Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory.

Start today by seeking God’s glory in every day’s activities.

[1]Trip, Ted and Margy. Instructing a Child’s Heart (Wapwallopen, PA: Shepherd Press, 2008), 15.

The “W” Conference at Southern Seminary.

God has called women to discipleship, evangelism and service to the church.

“But I feel pulled in a hundred directions? …Where do I find wisdom on which way to go?”

Being a woman is complicated, especially being a young woman in this mixed-up world. If the questions above enter your mind then the W conference was created just for you. W wants to help you apply the Bible’s teachings on womanhood to the situations that women often find themselves in. Being all that God has designed you to be isn’t always easy and without tribulation. W is intended to help and encourage you to live out your calling to make an eternal difference in His Kingdom.

W will encourage you to grow deeper in your faith and conference speakers will also address the biblical teachings on purity, relationships, dating, marriage, balance, wise spending, spiritual walk, making a difference, and more.

W is designed for young women, high school and college students and young adults. This Friday night and Saturday conference will be held on the campus of Southern Seminary on Nov. 19-20, 2010.

Conference Info:

The W Conference: Simplifying Womanhood in a Complicated World

November 19-20 at Southern Seminary
Worship Leaders: Mary Kassian and Heather Payne

Breakouts on multicultural relationships, girl-girl relationships, girl-boy relationships, balancing, time management, wise spending, spiritual fitness, God’s call, and the P31 wife.

Learn to minister to young women! Bring young women! Learn to be wise in a world gone crazy.

DISCOUNT CODE: SBTS for 15% off!

Register online now: http://events.sbts.edu/wconference

The first church that I served in was in a small town in southern Virginia. My first week on the job was a cold February Monday. My first task, plan the winter retreat quickly followed by the Spring Conference at a regional Christian college. Now, at the age of 21, my awareness was not as sharp as it was when I was 31 (not yet 41, but I can smell it) so I did not recognize that what I jumped into had a long history of running discipleship programs, trips, and events for the teenagers in the church. This is not my chance to vent about a crazy first church experience. On the contrary, my first church was a carbon copy of hundreds of churches around the state who spent most of their leadership energy in the youth ministry trying to dream up new ways to get teenagers to want to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ.

This is a cycle that still continues today. Ask ten youth pastors what the highest priorities are for their student ministry and I bet you will hear things like…telling students about Jesus, or reaching unsaved kids, or seeing students personally own their faith, or produce students that know God’s Word. All of those things and more will roll off their lips. But the real answers can be found in taking an evaluative look at what those same youth pastors spend their time doing day in and day out every week of the year. What we youth pastors spend our time on the most is often what we really value the most. And our calendars reveal what we spend our time on the most.

My fear is that, although we know how critical it is, we do not have a solid direction for the discipleship ministry that we have with our teenagers. We keep manufacturing church clones who can spit out the right answers but they can’t reproduce the life of Christ in any of their peers around them.