Building Something that Will Last
Someone once privately asked me an interesting question. "How do you build something in youth ministry that will really last, Jeanne?" the guy said quietly. The intensity behind his voice and the seriousness in his eyes told me that he probably had a personal story behind the question. Let me highlight for you a few of the things that I shared with him:
Focus on building a destiny—not a dynasty.
A destiny deals with people, but a dynasty deals with programs. Destiny tends to focus on significance, but a dynasty focuses on success. A person of destiny prioritizes servanthood; but someone focused on a dynasty prioritizes servitude. All along the youth ministry journey, there will be the temptation to focus on the more visible, the more spectacular, and the more sensational. But from my vantage point of 50 exciting years in full-time youth ministry, I can assure you that those things won't build a ministry that will last. It will be the non-glamorous moments of personal discipling, laborious planning, and behind-the-scenes praying that will come together to create a ministry that will really last. Don't get too impressed with the spectacular. Jesus isn't.Choose or lose.
In other words, be a person who doesn't just stumble into his priorities, but a person who very purposefully chooses his priorities. Thoreau once said, "It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is ‘What are you busy doing?'” The busier you are as a youth leader, the more strategic you have to become about living a "choose or lose" lifestyle. We're all familiar with the Pareto Principle that tells us, "20% of our time efforts will usually produce 80% of our results." So if you want to create a lasting ministry impact in students' lives, you will continually be asking, "Where can I put my energies that produce the most results?” Often in my life, that question determines how much time I invest into various students. I focus on giving myself away to my leaders and potential leaders. If not, my "EGR's" ("Extra Grace Required”) eat up the majority of my time.Preach louder with your life than you do your pulpit.
I'm pretty skeptical about how much real truth is transferred apart from a living, up close model. So if you want to build a youth ministry that will last, prioritize living your own messages with more fervor than you ever publicly communicate them. Students will catch your attitudes, your priorities, and your responses. And over time, that haunting Scripture from Proverbs will become a reality: "When a student is fully trained, he will be like his teacher." I've been privileged to be the youth pastor for 13, 15 nad 9 years respectively at different locations and have been in my current position at Victory World Church for 8 years. On my farewell nights, no one mentioned my sermons or brilliant program ideas. But countless students talked about quietly watching me, noticing my attitudes, and internally being shaped by the Christ I tried to model.Begin preparing for your exit on the day you enter.
Sound strange? But I really think this truth is vital. If you want to create a youth ministry that has lasting impact, you have to focus on creating leadership all around you. In short, you have to "work yourself out of a job." That's always one of my first goals when I begin to work with a new youth ministry. So in this manner, I begin preparing for my farewell party during my very first month. You see, common sense tells me I won't be leading a certain youth group forever. It may be 15 or 20 years down the line; but at some point, I will probably pass the baton to someone else. If I internally want to build a self-centered dynasty, I will secretly be glad if the youth ministry starts to unravel when I walk away. But if my heart has been focused on creating a youth ministry that will last, I will want a core of strong, competent leaders to take the ministry to the next level. Though the old saying is trite, it still remains true: "There is no success without a successor."Build yourself to last.
Lasting youth ministries rise and fall on lasting youth leaders. Sometimes, with all the demands of teenagers and parents, we forget the importance of taking care of ourselves. Worse yet, we can sometimes feel self-centered or lazy when we "disappear" for a day or choose occasionally not to answer our cell phone. We all know that in a family unit, one of the nicest things mom and dad can do for the children is to take care of themselves. In like manner, in a youth ministry family, one of your most unselfish leadership acts will be to take care of yourself. Pace yourself so you can do youth ministry for the long haul. That means taking days off without guilt, focusing on some teenagers that are replenishing to you, and even turning off your cell phone. That also means doing some "self-leadership" activities like reading, youth ministry coaching, or interacting—anything to help your youth ministry skills grow to the next level. By building yourself to last, you are building a youth ministry that will do the same.
As we started to finish up the conversation, I said casually, "Any special reason you ask?"
Pausing, sadness flashed across his eyes again. "I guess so. Growing up, I had 11 different youth leaders. Now my old church doesn't even have a youth ministry. Everybody's scattered and most of us aren't even living for the Lord anymore. I just don't want to repeat the pattern. I'm a volunteer in a different city now. But I just want to help create something that is around for a long, long time."
Someone once privately asked me an interesting question. "How do you build something in youth ministry that will really last, Jeanne?" the guy said quietly. The intensity behind his voice and the seriousness in his eyes told me that he probably had a personal story behind the question. Let me highlight for you a few of the things that I shared with him:
Focus on building a destiny—not a dynasty.
A destiny deals with people, but a dynasty deals with programs. Destiny tends to focus on significance, but a dynasty focuses on success. A person of destiny prioritizes servanthood; but someone focused on a dynasty prioritizes servitude. All along the youth ministry journey, there will be the temptation to focus on the more visible, the more spectacular, and the more sensational. But from my vantage point of 50 exciting years in full-time youth ministry, I can assure you that those things won't build a ministry that will last. It will be the non-glamorous moments of personal discipling, laborious planning, and behind-the-scenes praying that will come together to create a ministry that will really last. Don't get too impressed with the spectacular. Jesus isn't.Choose or lose.
In other words, be a person who doesn't just stumble into his priorities, but a person who very purposefully chooses his priorities. Thoreau once said, "It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is ‘What are you busy doing?'” The busier you are as a youth leader, the more strategic you have to become about living a "choose or lose" lifestyle. We're all familiar with the Pareto Principle that tells us, "20% of our time efforts will usually produce 80% of our results." So if you want to create a lasting ministry impact in students' lives, you will continually be asking, "Where can I put my energies that produce the most results?” Often in my life, that question determines how much time I invest into various students. I focus on giving myself away to my leaders and potential leaders. If not, my "EGR's" ("Extra Grace Required”) eat up the majority of my time.Preach louder with your life than you do your pulpit.
I'm pretty skeptical about how much real truth is transferred apart from a living, up close model. So if you want to build a youth ministry that will last, prioritize living your own messages with more fervor than you ever publicly communicate them. Students will catch your attitudes, your priorities, and your responses. And over time, that haunting Scripture from Proverbs will become a reality: "When a student is fully trained, he will be like his teacher." I've been privileged to be the youth pastor for 13, 15 nad 9 years respectively at different locations and have been in my current position at Victory World Church for 8 years. On my farewell nights, no one mentioned my sermons or brilliant program ideas. But countless students talked about quietly watching me, noticing my attitudes, and internally being shaped by the Christ I tried to model.Begin preparing for your exit on the day you enter.
Sound strange? But I really think this truth is vital. If you want to create a youth ministry that has lasting impact, you have to focus on creating leadership all around you. In short, you have to "work yourself out of a job." That's always one of my first goals when I begin to work with a new youth ministry. So in this manner, I begin preparing for my farewell party during my very first month. You see, common sense tells me I won't be leading a certain youth group forever. It may be 15 or 20 years down the line; but at some point, I will probably pass the baton to someone else. If I internally want to build a self-centered dynasty, I will secretly be glad if the youth ministry starts to unravel when I walk away. But if my heart has been focused on creating a youth ministry that will last, I will want a core of strong, competent leaders to take the ministry to the next level. Though the old saying is trite, it still remains true: "There is no success without a successor."Build yourself to last.
Lasting youth ministries rise and fall on lasting youth leaders. Sometimes, with all the demands of teenagers and parents, we forget the importance of taking care of ourselves. Worse yet, we can sometimes feel self-centered or lazy when we "disappear" for a day or choose occasionally not to answer our cell phone. We all know that in a family unit, one of the nicest things mom and dad can do for the children is to take care of themselves. In like manner, in a youth ministry family, one of your most unselfish leadership acts will be to take care of yourself. Pace yourself so you can do youth ministry for the long haul. That means taking days off without guilt, focusing on some teenagers that are replenishing to you, and even turning off your cell phone. That also means doing some "self-leadership" activities like reading, youth ministry coaching, or interacting—anything to help your youth ministry skills grow to the next level. By building yourself to last, you are building a youth ministry that will do the same.
As we started to finish up the conversation, I said casually, "Any special reason you ask?"
Pausing, sadness flashed across his eyes again. "I guess so. Growing up, I had 11 different youth leaders. Now my old church doesn't even have a youth ministry. Everybody's scattered and most of us aren't even living for the Lord anymore. I just don't want to repeat the pattern. I'm a volunteer in a different city now. But I just want to help create something that is around for a long, long time."
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So often when we mess up in our Christian walk, the mind games immediately begin to tell us it's not worth trying to get back on track again. After all, we'll just keep messing up! I spoke about this inner battle with my own gang, Oxygen, in this Source called "The Call Is Higher Than The Fall."
You'll want to listen in as I speak vulnerably with them about finding hope in the moments of weakness. Realizing that we all have a call and destiny on our lives that is so much more important than the current failure we find ourselves in, is the catalyst to get back up and go at this again. This is definitely one you will cherish for yourself and for your students!
Because of the Call,
What is the dream in your heart? At the end of your life, what do you want to look back on and say, "I did that"? Many people have a "Field of Dreams" they would like to build; unfortunately, countless abandon it when negative situations or tough times come their way.
In this Youth Leader's Coach, we look at the movie with Kevin Costner, Field of Dreams, and unpack the immortal line, "Sometimes the good Lord allows us to lose our dream to find our destiny." Even when life appears to throw us a curve ball, we get to choose how it shapes our soul. And that, my friend, will make all the difference in the world. So grab a cup of coffee and let's see what Abraham's life has to teach us about not giving up on our destinies.
Lovingly,
I've always been a woman on a mission...to leave a genuine legacy that honors Christ. You've heard me quote my personal mission statement over and over: "The motivation and mentorship of Kamikaze Christianity into practicing and potential Kingdom champions." In this Source I challenge each of us with the question, "What's going to be the SIGNATURE OF YOUR LIFE?" I ask you to be audacious enough to answer the unspoken question that everybody will be trying to casually ask in the “reunion” celebrations of your life, "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH YOUR LIFE?" We all want to do something AMAZING and WORLD-CHANGING with our lives, but really, what does that even look like today?
You'll also hear me reference one of the greatest men I ever knew that REALLY did something DEEPLY meaningful with his life on earth. I had the honor and privilege to see what real, destiny-altering legacy looked like for 48 years with my beloved husband and hero, Pastor Mayo. He was a LEGEND...to me, and to many of you.
WHAT MAKES A LEGEND? This is the definition I gave at Pastor Mayo's Homegoing Celebration...INTEGRITY + ENDURANCE = GOD'S KIND OF LEGEND
Lovingly,
I shared this message with the Atlanta Leadership College gang back in September at our annual Opening Chapel. In this you will hear me say something that I pray that this echoes through your mind, "The threshold of your destiny could rest on one isolated choice. Choose wisely."
We minister to students who stand on the threshold of their lives and try our best to help them make God-honoring choices with their futures...but I've learned that throughout life, we continue to be at the threshold of so many things. The Lord has had me camped on the 23rd Psalm for much of the last year, especially verse 4, "Even though I WALK through The Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." When you are on the threshold of the of Death Valley, you just go AROUND it, you must WALK THROUGH it if you ever want to arrive at verse 6, where it promises "goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life."
Journey with me as we talk about the Threshold, Death Valley, and see how God wants to create an INVICTUS spirit inside of you and your students! I promise, you will not regret it.
Lovingly,
A pretty big thought for today's generation of youth and young adults is "What is my destiny?" or "What is my purpose in life?" We all long to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We want to make our lives count for something that really matters. But far too often it seems that we aren't sure how to FIGHT. We aren't sure how to push past all of the things that come along with fighting for our destiny...like loneliness, compromise, and giving up too easily.
I open this Source, "Musings From My Future Casket," with a pretty powerful but fun visualization, called "Welcome to the funeral service of "Melvin Mediocre"! I also share a story from the Bible about Jacobs's life as he wrestled for his own destiny and use some wisdom from an old movie where a 7th grade student named, Trevor McKinney, comes up with an idea that could actually CHANGE THE WORLD... and then puts it into ACTION. Journey with me as we talk about destiny, becoming part of something bigger than yourself and the concept of "Paying it forward."
Determined to fight for my own destiny,
