5 Reasons Jesus Would Be Fired as a Youth Leader!

In the crazy “what if” world of impossible scenarios I am convinced that Jesus would be fired within his first few months of becoming a youth leader at the typical church. Here are five reasons why…

1. He would shrink the group before he grew it.

In the Gospels Jesus scared away the loud crowds and nestled into the committed core on several occasions. What makes us think he would do anything differently in a modern youth group context as a youth leader?

His large and thriving “youth group” shrunk to next to nothing after his hard-to-understand lesson on communion in John 6:66, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”

In Luke 14:25-27 Jesus implemented his crowd shrinking strategy in a much more direct way, “Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

Calling for such radical commitment would cause pastors’ kids to complain to their parents. Not to mention how Jesus’ thought provoking teaching style (that often created more questions than answers) would cause parents and pastors alike to cringe. Their red faces would soon turn into a pink slip.

2. He would do most of his youth ministry outside the four walls of the youth room.

How much time do we see Jesus ministering in the temple or synagogues (the equivalent of a church building in the Jewish context)? He was there some but, more often than not, his pulpit could be found by a fig tree, on a pathway, in a field, on a mountain or in a boat. He used nature as sermon illustrations and “that just happened” incidents as his teaching curriculum.

Jesus was his own mobile app. He applied truth on the go to the lives of his mostly teenaged disciples in real life situations and it would get him fired real quick from most churches.

3. He would bring the “un” ones (dirty, flirty and rejected) into his inner circle.

Jesus reached the dirty…

“A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man.” Mark 1:40,41

Jesus reached the flirty…

“When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.’”Luke 7:36-39

Jesus reached the rejected….

“When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a sinner’” Luke 19:5-7.

As soon as Jesus started bringing converted call girls, puss-oozing sickies and cultural rejects into youth group many pretty and pristine Bible-toting, Scripture-quoting teenagers would evacuate the premises. Soon the elders would call a meeting and, well, you know what happens after that.

4. He would confront the status quo in the youth group and church at large.

“When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!’ His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ The Jews then responded to him, ‘What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’” John 2:13-18

Imagine the scenario, Jesus flipping tables in the church foyer and screaming, “Why have you turned my Father’s house into a den of robbers?” Sure, our churches aren’t selling over-priced livestock for temple sacrifices. But many of them are selling the fattened calves of consumeristic Christianity that caters to self and not service to God. You wonder how many Sunday school classes Jesus would interupt and ask, “Why don’t we get out of here and go down to the local shelter together? We can feed the poor, clothe the hungry and share the gospel. I can teach you the lesson in the church van on the way back.”

This would lead to the inevitable …”Our leadership team is headed in a different direction” conversation.

5. His hair would be way too long to be taken seriously.

Below the ears is risky but below the shoulders? Come on! If you can’t trust a man to visit the barber once in awhile can you trust him to run a youth ministry? I didn’t think so!

Post Written By: Greg Stier

www.gregstier.org

The Story of the Port-a-Potty!

Once Upon a Time I did a sermon series entitled Don’t Date Until… It was a 4-week series about dating! I wanted to portray a message to the students that they shouldn’t date until they are ready to be in a relationship!

The Sermon Titles:

Don’t Date Until Your Spiritually Ready!

Don’t Date Until You Can be a Good Wife!

Don’t Date Until You Can be a Man!

And then the final night of the Series I entered the stage from a Port-a-John; this just happened to be my favorite night of the series. This night was called “Don’t Date Until You Can Take a Dump”

I talked about 3 things on this night:

Don’t Date if you can’t DEAL with a break up!

Don’t Date Until if you don’t know WHEN to break up!

Don’t Date Until You know HOW to break up!

peace

//brad//

If you have any student ministry questions or book me for a event email me at brad@bradellerbe.com

Risk vs Reward

In overtime, Atlanta appeared to pick up a first down on a pass to Mike Cox, but he was ruled just shortly after the referee looked at the replay. Then, stunningly, Smith decided to go for it on fourth down from his own 29.

Michael Turner was stuffed. Game over.

The Risk: You get stuffed, you lose.

The Reward: You get a first down on your 30, win not guaranteed.

The reason this is a DUMB play call is that the Risk is greater than the Reward!

So let’s take a look at using “secular songs” in “Christian events”!

I’ll tell a few stories and then make a point…

Some 5 years ago, I used “Highway to Hell” by ACDC as a creative element in our student event. I watched as students listened to that song and felt conviction in their hearts, and that night, many students committed their hearts to God! One student said, “I saw my life while that song was playing, and I knew I needed to change.”

Then, one night I used “I’m Moving On” by Rascal Flatts as one of the creative elements during a series on dating. I was talking about how to handle breakups, when you should break up with someone, etc. One student came to me after it was over and said, “I broke up with my boyfriend this weekend! I needed all of this; tonight was for me!”

I have always said, “I will do anything short of sin to reach people for the cause of Christ.”

I believe that we have to do whatever it takes to relate and get our message across to students who come in the doors of our events. If a “secular” song can do that, then use it.

When doing this, we have to be very careful. Just because it’s “secular” doesn’t mean it’s approved. We have to make sure it’s moral and has a positive influence on someone’s heart.

So the RISK vs. REWARD:

The Reward for using “secular” music is MUCH greater than the risk!

The Risk: A saved person gets upset!

So there is a song played during the event that you couldn’t worship to. Will some of the religious get upset? Probably! But Jesus was very clear how he felt about this issue. I love what he said in Matthew: Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders” (Matt. 9).

The Reward: One student gives his/her heart to God!

You may ask, “Is the risk really worth the ONE?” Absolutely. It’s all about the ONE student who needs to come home. That’s why I love this passage. Count on it—there’s more joy in heaven over one sinner’s rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue (Luke 15).

Feel free to leave comments!

//brad//

If you have any student ministry questions email me at brad@bradellerbe.com

I dont claim to know it all but after 9 years I claim to know something!

5 things students are asking about your event…

Last week I wrote about 5 things students are NOT asking… Today I write 5 things they are asking..

Is it fun?

Will I find friends?

Will I ever be uncomfortable?

Does the Leader care about Me?

Will they help me change my life if I want to?

Is it fun? Is it fun? Is it fun?

Remember They Don’t care what your doctrine is…

If you have any student ministry questions email Me at: brad@bradellerbe.com

Up next what parents are asking…

5 thing students are NOT asking about your student ministry!

1 How many prayer meetings does the youth group have?
2 Does the student pastor know Homiletics?
3 What is your “Doctrine”?
4 What does your discipleship program look like?
5 What does your Denomination name tag say?

C’mon man, get real!

What they are asking is coming soon… You may be surprised….

Lets Get Creative…

With the New Year kicking off I just thought I would post a few sermon graphics of things I have done in the past that was super successful, feel free to steal, copy, and plagiarize! Now you can sleep tonight knowing you didn’t steal! HAHA

For more info on this feel free to email me at brad@bradellerbe.com

//brad//

Excellence in Student Ministry is…

Excellence in Student Ministry is Required; Not Optional!

Excellence is a very important thing in life and in ministry.

Ever been to a restaurant where the service may have been good but the food was bad or maybe a place where the food was great but the atmosphere didn’t quite fit your preference and you left thinking this was a very distasteful experience and I probably will not go back to this place. This restaurant my have gotten a few things right, but not everything and yet you still don’t want to go back.

Excellence should not be something we strive for in out student ministries; it should be demanded. There is to much on the line for us to casually just go through a service. Attraction will get students to your ministry; Excellence keeps them. There are to many youth services that are unplanned, unprepared, unorganized, its time we start preparing, planning and organizing.

So how do you produce an excellent event:

Plan Baby Plan!

Have a weekly meeting to discuss what will be happening! If you cant meet in person there’s always Skype or ichat.

Make sure everybody knows what’s going on before the night of the performance.

Have a pre-event meeting, just to clear the air on what’s about to happen!

Have a schedule on paper! Don’t just assume everybody will remember what there supposed to do! That sounds so simple, but it’s rarely done!

*I have included a event schedule I used in a service!

Make Sure You Have the Best 11!

My high school coach used to always say “ We are going to play the 11 best on offense and the 11 best on defense, I don’t care who your Daddy is”! We have to have the best people in the roles that gives us the best chance to get victory with our events!

People who are not excellent at what they do should not be doing it.

Here are a few of scenarios of people doing something they shouldn’t be doing:

         Imagine putting an offensive lineman at the QB position?

         Imagine a hair dresser building your house?

         Imagine a carpenter cutting your hair?

Those are funny, but I ask the serious questions:

            Why do we put people on our stages who have no clue what to do?

            Why do we give microphones to people who CAN’T sing?

            Why do we give instruments to people who can’t play?

Be Passionate or Don’t Play!

Don’t allow people who are not passionate about the ministry to be apart. Ultimately this person will let you down, the team down in a very important time and cost you victory!

//brad//

“Perfectly Lonely” ~ Repost

I am 27 and still without a significant someone in my life. I don’t belong to anyone, and nobody belongs to me. I am proposed with all types of questions: When are you going to get married? Are you happy? Are you lonely?  Especially when I go to weddings, there is always one person who comes up to me and says those famous words: “You’re next.” I keep a running tab of who’s told me that, and when I see them at a funeral, my phrase to them is “You’re next.” The looks on their faces are priceless. But the more I think about all of those questions, I just want to shout, “I’M PERFECTLY LONELY,” not because I want to be single all of my life but because I want to make sure that I find the one that is perfect for me.

I have waited 27 years to get it right. I’m not going to waste that by getting it wrong just because everyone else is or because I have come to a point in my life where I have become desperate to be in a relationship.  I would rather spend my life perfectly lonely than to make a rushed decision to cure the lonely part of my life and find out I waited all of these years to get it right and then in a moment of ignorance, loneliness, and desperation, I get it wrong because I’m looking to cure a moment’s need with a lifetime commitment. The moment you settle for less than you are worth, you will obtain even less than you settled for.

I have been thinking a lot about relationships. I look around and see people getting in and out of relationships. I see Facebook statuses going from “Single” to “In a relationship” to “It’s complicated” and back to “Single” in a 72-hour span. One time, I was in a relationship that was almost just as quick. I think we made it 75 hours. It seems as though some people’s relationships keep them on an emotional rollercoaster all the time. People often get into relationships that will, in time, be detrimental to their lives, but it is more important to them to have a significant someone by their side than to have the right someone with them. The caretaker of your heart is the most important occupation anyone will ever fill.  So sort through your applications carefully and choose the right one because you can only hire once, no replacing!

Most people long for that significant someone to fill the void in their life that only God can fill, so they spend so much of their life worshiping at the altar of romantic completion, but the void can only be filled with Jesus Christ himself.

I am content with letting God write my love story and keeping my hand off the inkhorn because I know the story will have a much happier ending if he’s the author of the love story.

//brad//

Numbers: Do they matter?

I often hear people say, “It’s not about numbers” or, “Numbers is what it’s about”!This subject has been on my mind for some time now, so I decided to write a blog.  Here we go:

The problem with “It’s Not about Numbers”:

“Leaders who say numbers don’t matter their numbers are probably going from 99, 77, 55, to 31.”

I often hear or see it written “Unknown Youth Group” is the largest in their city; or “Man, last week we topped 300 which makes us the largest in the city.”  I’ve always wanted to respond with this question:  “Is your goal to be the largest in your city?”

Has the picture gotten so small that we have begun to think that being the “largest in our city” is the goal; or have we lost the big picture that it’s about teens getting to Heaven? Every time I hear, “Who is the largest in your city?” I begin to wonder, “Why are we still competing with other churches?”

Unfortunately, the largest youth ministry in your town is not yours, or any other church’s.  Hell has the largest group.  Because, if every student in your city that is “lost” showed up at one location, on the night you had your student event, it would, in fact, be the largest!

Maybe then you will blush, and say numbers do matter!

If you don’t think numbers count, you need to let someone who truly cares about kids going to Heaven take your place, as the youth leader.

The problem with “Numbers is what it’s about”:

I was talking with a “student,” the other day, which was going through a lot, and who was frustrated.  Hopefully, I was able to help.  One thing that was said has stuck out in my mind — “I’ve had 7 youth pastors and none of them could tell you my last name.” <<<< THERE lies the problem with numbers.  It was also said, “I guess because I didn’t sing in the praise team, I wasn’t important enough to care about.” I thought to myself, “What a shame.”

When we have the “it’s all about the numbers” mindset, numbers become our God.  We begin to count 50, 75, 100, 225, and we forget about the 1, 3, 5 students who come every week, that are dealing with life issues.  Their so-called “youth pastor” is nowhere to be found.

Youth workers, this kind of stuff is “BullCrap”, if you are going to care more about the “faceless masses,” rather than “your students” that show up every week.  You need to let someone who cares about students take your place, TODAY!

Don’t allow students to just become a number that walks in your door, every week, so that you can boast about how many you had, the next time you are around your peers. You can have 300 in attendance, but if you only care for 30, that’s how many is in your youth group!

So after all that, should we count numbers?  Yes, we should — but not in the sense of “how many was in youth.”  Instead, we should ask ourselves these questions:  “How many made a heart change (got saved)”; “how many students did we minister to?”  We shouldn’t focus on how many signed-in, nor how many students came, but rather how many we actually CARED for.

After-all It’s about decreasing hell and increasing heaven; not super sizing our ego!

parents, student ministry and ‘highway to hell” all in one blog!

One Sunday, I was standing in the main entrance of our sanctuary welcoming guests, when a woman approached me saying, “I’m looking for the guy who speaks to the teenagers on Wednesday night.” I quickly thought in my mind, “Do I run and hide; what have I done this time?” Then I said, “That’s me!” She then said, “I need to talk to you!” Going through my head, again, was “Oh Crap!,” because I knew that I had played “Highway to Hell,” in our student event, that Wednesday night.

We step to the side of the entrance way, and she says, “My daughter has been talking about Wednesday night, for 3 days now, and how incredible it was. She told me you used ‘Highway to Hell’ in your message and that she loved your message. She is in love with this church after one night, so I just had to come check it out and see what’s going on!”

The teenager controls what the family does. Allow me to explain:

Parents: Hey Kids, Where y’all want to go on vacation? We were thinking Branson or the Mountains.

Kids: Eeeh, We want to Go to the BEACH!

Parents: Beach it is!

When a family walks in a church for the first time, Dad and Mom go to the adult worship service, while the teenagers go to the student service. If the parents like the church, they think in the back of their minds, “Gosh, I hope John and Lucy like this church.”

Scenario 1: They get in the car and while driving home…

Dad says: What y’all think?

John: Eeeh, we really didn’t enjoy it. It was boring.

Lucy: Yea, I didn’t feel very comfortable!

What do you think this families going to do? Let me help you — they will toss the “thanks for coming card”. They aren’t coming back, no matter how much you try!!

Scenario 2: Dad and Mom don’t really enjoy the service. They get in the car and driving home…

John says: I really like that church.

Lucy says: Yea, it was awesome. We want to keep coming back here!

Dad and Mom will sacrifice, a little bit, if their kids love their experience! Membership will follow real soon!

Student Ministry is a very important part of church growth or church decline. If you can get the teenagers to consistently come to your church, you can get the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and so forth. So, you better make sure that you put a priority on having a successful student ministry! I’ve never seen a church, who put a priority on youth ministry, go under!

//brad//