Category Archives: Student Ministry
The End of an Era
It’s now completely official. As of this past Sunday, I am no longer the Pastor of Student Ministries at Lifepoint Church in Clinton Tennessee. Yes, the end of a four year era.
After much thought, a ton of prayer and conversation with my wife, last week we decided it was now time to move on to the next BIG thing God has planned for our lives. It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make in some time, but it was a decision that probably should had been made sooner than it did. The reason why I say that is because when God tells us to move to action, we shouldn’t hesitate. God has spoken to me and Denira and we did what most of do; we said yes and then did nothing about it. Yes to God requires ACTION. Something we finally gave in to.
Some the greatest times I’ve ever had in my 10 years of doing student ministry were spent at Fusion. I can easily say I grew closest to these students and volunteers more so than I did any other ministry I was ever involved in. God allowed us to be part of some amazing times there. Ahead is even GREATER times for Fusion, Lifepoint Church, and Denira and I.
So WHAT is next? After 10 years of being a student pastor and the last 4 being spent with Fusion, what comes next for us? You’d like to know huh? Well I’m not going to tell you….just YET! But know this…..it’s gonna be HUGE! God will be glorified and lives will be changed as they trust God like they’ve never trusted before! I’m so pumped about the NEXT step for Denira and I! You’ll just have to wait a bit longer to find out what it is!
More Youth Ministry Lies
HERE is a great post by Josh Griffin titled 4 Youth Ministry Lies. Being a 10 year vet of student ministry, I’ve had my share of youth ministry lies spued my way. Here’s a list in continuation of Josh’s 4….
- Middle School pastors are the young, immature pastors of the church
- This one is such a stereo type the churches fall into. They go out and hire a guy who has great potential and because he’s young, a little crazy, and way inexperienced, they think he can only serve in middle school ministry. Some of the best middle school pastors I’ve been around have been older guys…well…just older than me….who had a wide range of experience.
- All student pastors play an instrument…mainly guitar
- Ok, this one is a half lie. I play an instrument. But it’s by choice and not because we have no worship leader so I have to play on every Sunday and on every over night trip we take. This is a lie because the Butt Horn doesn’t count. Sorry JOSH
- Senior pastors and student pastors don’t click
- In all 10+ years of my experience in student ministry, I’ve never had this as a major problem. Now there have the horror stories we’ve all heard about how because all student pastors are under paid and their senior pastor is out to get them…yeah it happens. But news flash…if you’re in ministry…YOU’RE UNDER PAID! But here’s the deal…let’s be honest…we’re not under paid because your Preach doesn’t dig you. And for the record, a relationship between a student pastor and senior pastor is a two way street. I’m not blind and I know these relationships go south in some circles. But let’s debunk the lie and not put that label on all student pastor/senior pastor relationships
- Student pastors don’t write REAL messages
- Maybe this one should read something about how student pastors only use pre-made messages that come from Youth Specialties or my personal fav Simply Youth Ministry. Or maybe it should say something about how student pastor messages are really more like Sunday School material because teenagers can’t hack the meat from the bible so everything is sort of surface type stuff. OR…maybe it should say something about how student pastors, since they’re not REAL pastors any way, can’t really bring the wood on a Sunday morning. I don’t know…take your pick…but it’s all a LIE.
Weekend Confessions
Another stellar weekend all around. Fusion was great, the weekend was fun, and we celebrated my wife’s birthday with our annual birthday weekend. Here are some of the highlights…
- Started Denira’s birthday celebration with tickets to see Matt Nathanson and Lifehouse in Knoxville. Actually went for Matt Nathanson and just so happens that Lifehouse was there. Matt was great playing a lot of stuff from his new album and Lifehouse wasn’t bad either. If you get a chance, go see Matt Nathanson or buy his new album Some Mad Hope…it’ll be worth it!
- Fusion attendance was lower than normal last night, which I didn’t expect. Usually cold, rainy weather means good attendance in student ministry.
- Kicked off That’s What She Said with Rahab last night. Not sure if it went like I had hoped, but at least we planted the seed.
- I called our students to put their faith into action like Rahab did…let’s see what happens next!
- Went trout fishing with Denira while in the mountains on Saturday…didn’t catch jack but it was fun tromping through the stream with her!
- There’s nothing more sexy than my wife in a pair oversized waders holding a trout rod! Ha!
- Over the weekend my wife and I got addicted to the Discovery Channels Deadliest Catch. We wont’ miss an episode of the new season! I think we seriously watched 10 episodes this weekend.
- Inhabited will be playing at Fusion on April 27th along with BrightGray! I don’t think our students have any idea how good this band is! They’ll be blown away!
- It’s getting close to our mission trip and I’m SO STOKED! But I’m also a bit overwhelmed because there is so much to do!
- If you haven’t checked out Chris Tomlin’s worshipfrequency.com….do it NOW! There is some great material over there and a stinkin’ awesome message board. Be sure to check out the Worship Seminar put on by JD Walt. It’s some great stuff. Check it out HERE
Weekend Confessions
- One of the best weekends yet!
- Didn’t have to speak at Fusion (Stephen Brown did a great job!) so I got to observe and participate in other areas which was fun
- Matt “errr”Robbins did a fantastic job leading worship this week!
- Set List Included: You Are God (Charlie Hall) Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone (Tomlin), Open Skies (Crowder) and few others…
- Saturday Denira and I went fishing and had a blast! She caught 5 or 6 and hooked into a really BIG bass, but it got away
- Spent some time with Denira’s parents and our niece and nephew, Christian and Rhiannon on Friday night….Denira’s dad hooked us up with a brake job….he’s such a servant and so good to us! We are lucky to have two sets of great parents and in-laws!
- Got a call to speak at Clinton Middle School Youth For Christ on Thursday morning…I get so stoked to speak to them when I get the chance!
- Our student ministry has had a major blessing by being able to be involved in and even lead a ton of stuff going on at 3 different schools this week
- Not speaking this week, I got to play around with some creative elements for our student gathering this week. It always makes my wife super nervous when I do that because she handles all the creative aspects of our student gathering and does a super job! Here’s what I put together for announcements this week….
- Yes…I laughed at this more than anyone else!
- Had two guys do a skit for the message Sunday night and I flipped (in a good way) when they used real water to splash on each other! It was great cause I don’t think anyone expected it!
Weekend Confessions
A nice relaxing weekend with not much going on was just what I needed. Fusion was great too!
- Spent Friday night hanging out with Chris “The Thrill” Hill, Greg, Hut, and Nick “The Vanilla Killa” Miller….went to Fudruckers and saw Semi-Pro
- The SEC tournament was this weekend. My hopes of UT winning an SEC Championship were dashed by Arkansas and Stephen “I’ll just hit one shot the entire game at the buzzer” Hill. No, I’m not bitter. Why would you think that?
- Saturday night got better as Denira and I went to our fav, Wasabi’s. The cook tossed rice down Denira’s shirt when he tossing it up for her to catch it….it was priceless!
- We knocked out week #2 of Light Up The Sky at Fusion Sunday night and it was off the hook!
- Danny Bright came out to lead worship and did a real bang up job….I love doing ministry with that guy! Get this guy to come and lead worship for you!
- If you haven’t had a chance to check out his band, BrightGray, go NOW…they have a new album out
- We camped out on Jesus’s last words of “It is finished.”…..setting things up to celebrate the resurrection this Sunday
- I’m so pumped about this Sunday Night at Fusion…it’s gonna be the best Easter celebration we’ve had and it’s open to EVERYONE! So get out to Fusion Sunday night @ 6pm!
- Seriously…I don’t care how old you are…BE AT FUSION SUNDAY NIGHT!!!!
