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Experience, Equip, and Engage Ideas

July 25, 2008 in Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

Our vision at Cornerstone is to help people experience new life in Christ, to equip them to be fully devoted followers of Christ, and to engage our community and world for Christ. I challenged our youth to think of some practical ways that we could fulfill our vision. Here are some of their answers. After reading this, I hope you would agree with me that teens are capable of doing much more for the kingdom of God than they get credit for. These are some great ideas.

Experience, Equip, and Engage Ideas

  • Do more local missions
  • Organize a youth led rally for local students
  • Have a Bible Camp and more overnight retreats
  • Help the local food banks and provide free meals for those in need
  • Start a Christian youth radio station that plays music that youth will actually listen to
  • Offer free day care or mother’s morning out programs
  • Help pay for prescriptions for those who can’t afford them
  • Visit the elderly in local nursing homes
  • Start a bible study for the teens in a local juvenile detention home
  • Visit and reach out to those in prison and jail
  • Start a community fun day
  • Go deeper into the Bible
  • Reach out to the community during local parades and events
  • Open up our downtown building for after-game youth activities
  • Provide brochures on how to get involved and serve
  • Be more active and help local schools
  • Provide counseling services
  • Visit and reach out to people in the community
  • Volunteer at the local training center for the mentally handicapped
  • Encourage the youth to teach and develop their leadership skills

Youth Retreat

July 25, 2008 in Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

It’s been a slow week here on the site. We got back late Wednesday from a 4 day retreat for our youth group. I suffered from internet withdrawal since the beach house we all crammed into didn’t have internet, but I’m finally getting caught back up replying to blogs and emails. We ended up taking 17 teenagers to focus some time on relationships. As I’ve shared before, a change of pace and change of place will give you a change in perspective. By getting away for a few days we had an incredible time to grow closer to God and grow closer as a group. And as a pastor, I really enjoy spending time with the teenagers to share and encourage them. They are such an important part of the church.

A few years ago, we did a similar retreat to talk about sex and relationships with the youth. Jennifer and I always try to be creative in naming the youth retreats. A fun name gives them something to look forward to and a good reason to invite friends. We took them to Carowinds and “unofficially” called the retreat “Sex and Roller Coasters” On all the official letters to the parents it was just about dating and relationships, but we were able to really break the ice to talk about some very important issues from a Biblical viewpoint. This time we didn’t give the retreat a title, but the youth did. They kept calling the retreat, “Sex on the Beach” We had a great time talking about purity, holiness, and intimacy, and the unofficial name kept the discussion from getting too overwhelming.

One of the highlights of the trip was our early Wednesday morning baptism service on the beach. One of the girls asked to be baptized in the ocean and we had a great time celebrating with her. Overall the retreat was really life changing. We were able to split up the girls and guys several times for discussions. Jennifer took what she learned from the girls and then shared that with the guys, and I did the same with the girls. It really helped me to understand some of the pressures and temptations that teens are facing now. Times have definitely changed over the past 20 years.

Here are some interesting pics from the trip.

Prayer on the Beach

Baptism Service
The Youth Diet (Mt. Dew, Dr. Pepper, and Fruity Pebbles)

Just Talking and Sharing at the Beach Early in the Morning

Youth Retreats

July 19, 2008 in Youth Ministry with 1 Comment

After church, we are taking almost 20 teenagers on a retreat to the beach. It’s just us and one other couple spending 4 days with a great group of kids. We are focusing on relationships and dating. We have a beach house to stay in, so we want to just focus on getting away from the distractions and craziness of everyday life to really seek God and His Word. I always look forward to trips like these because I know transformation will take place. I love how teens respond to the truth of God’s Word, and I love their passion and zeal for life. We adults might call it naivety or idealism, but in reality it is simply faith. Faith that God will provide and will equip them to do what He has called them to do. Pray that I will be able to teach and lead them to a closer walk with Christ.

One Prayer from the Youth

July 16, 2008 in Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

I challenged our youth to write out their One Prayer for our church during our last meeting. It was awesome to hear what God has put on their heart. Here are just a few of their prayers.

Lord, Make Us Ready
Lord, Make Us Aware
Lord, Make Us Grow Closer to You
Lord, Make Us Loving
Lord, Make Us A Lot More Passionate For You
Lord, Make Us Stronger
Lord, Make Us Listen
Lord, Make Us Passionate
Lord, Make Us Evangelistic
Lord, Make Us Obedient
Lord, Help Us Change The World!
Lord, Make Us Genuine
Lord, Make Us Compassionate
Lord, Make The Church about God and Only God
and finally
Lord, Help Us Drive a Bulldozer With a Stick??? (Don’t you love youth)

Do you think they get it? I know they do. Teens are awesome and Cornerstone has been blessed with an incredible group. I am blown away by what they are learning and how passionate they are. We adults have so much to learn from teens. They aren’t held back by the worries of the world, they are ready and willing to tackle any problem, and they do it all with enthusiasm and passion. I’m proud of our group and I will share tomorrow their thoughts on how to accomplish their prayers listed above.

Every Time I Cancel Youth …

July 14, 2008 in Youth Ministry with 0 Comments



I woke up this morning to this. The teens wrapped up my car with plastic wrap and tied fishing line all over the driveway and the house. My kids loved it because all the fishing line was like an obstacle course from Mission Impossible. We canceled our youth meeting last night because of our church picnic and baptism, so they had some extra time on their hands. Even after stuff like this, I still love teenagers and youth ministry. They just like to show you how much they care.

Weekend Wrap-Up

June 23, 2008 in Church Related, Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

As the weekends get busy, I typically don’t post here on the blog. But now that the weekend is over, here is the wrap-up.

  • We had a yard sale on Saturday morning. Jennifer was busy all day on Friday getting things together and I was busy carrying and moving “stuff” up to our garage. We made about $200 selling our stuff, but we didn’t get rid of everything that we wanted to. I am not a huge fan of having yard sales. People walk around and look at your stuff and try to act like you have it priced too high. It’s all part of the bargaining game. You have to appear like you are too good to pay $10 for something that originally cost 10 times that. I wish people would just cut the attitude and games and either buy stuff or walk away.
  • Jennifer and I also met with a former student and his fiance who are getting married in a few weeks. I’m helping officiate the wedding so we were working through all the final details. This wedding is extra special to me since I was there when they first met each other. We were on a youth trip to a concert at Carowinds when he saw her sitting in the next section. It took a little bit of encouragement (i.e. questioning his masculinity) before he finally went over and introduced himself. But here we are several years later and they are getting married. Awesome.
  • We continued the One Prayer Series at church on Sunday. I had planned on showing Craig Groeschel’s message on unity, but I changed my mind on Friday and switched to show the message from Greg Surratt at Seacoast about obedience. One of the great strengths of the One Prayer series is the many sermons to choose from. There are so many different teaching styles and we can learn from all of them. If the pastor loves God and loves His people, then we can learn and grow from what they share. The Seacoast message was a great “fit” for our congregation. I have visited there several times on vacation and they have been gracious about answering some of my questions about how they do church. I showed parts of Craig Groeschel’s message during youth on Sunday night and they loved it, but I think for our congregation Greg Surratt’s message was the right choice for this week. I am thankful to Craig Groeschel and the entire staff of Lifechurch.tv for getting this together. It’s been great and it has given me a chance to focus on getting some planning and administrative work done. And have I mentioned that our attendance has been growing during the month of June! Typically June is a down month, so I’m super excited about what God is doing.
  • And finally we had youth last night. We had planned on meeting outside on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but when there is a severe thunderstorm warning, you don’t want to be around me (I’ll have to share my lightening story in a future post). We instead met at the new building downtown. It was the first time in almost a month that I was really able to teach and I loved it. I always love teen’s enthusiasm and their desire to learn and grow. They naturally have questions, so it is so important to create a safe environment for them to seek the truth.

Marketing and Youth Conferences

June 11, 2008 in Youth Ministry with 2 Comments

I’ve got to share a frustration of mine. I have been working in youth ministry now for about 13 years, so I have been to my fair share of youth conferences. Some I have liked, and some I won’t go back to, but I still think conferences have a valid place in youth ministry. But here is my frustration. Almost every conference will call and pressure youth pastors to bring their youth group. I have had more high-pressure sales pitches thrown at me than I care to count. And most of the time, it is an intern or someone fresh out of school calling me trying to tell me what is best for my kids.

I had a phone call today where the caller actually criticized me for not wanting to drive 8 hours to attend their conference. He said that I should do what is best for the youth group and not worry about money or travel arrangements. First of all, the real world does involve budgets and second, your conference may be good, but it is not the most important part of our youth ministry! RELATIONSHIPS will trump a conference every time. I have attended their conference before and felt that it was good, but a little too much hype and emotionalism. So don’t call me and criticize my leadership for not supporting your paycheck. That my friend is arrogance.

Please, I expect high pressure sales tactics when I deal with secular companies trying to sell me something. But leave the sales pitch out of youth ministry. It is first and foremost about students. I have definitely seen lives changed as a result of going to conferences. But the parents and leaders closest to those students still by far have the greatest impact.

– End of Rant

I do have to give a shout-out where one is due. One conference that has been very professional and low pressure has been the PlanetWisdom conference. They occasionally call, ask if I have any questions, let me know about deadlines, and thank me for my time. That is why I have been to it more than any other. They focus on the Bible and support the local youth pastors. That’s a great combination.

Weekend Wrap-Up

May 19, 2008 in Church Related, Family, Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

It was a busy weekend, but worth it as usual. I just wanted to share some of my experiences from the weekend.

  • Saturday night church meeting – we try to get together once a month just to share updates and pray. We also spent some time thinking of some things that need to be done at church. It was exciting to hear how the church has made a difference in the lives of several people. It makes all the hard work worth it when you see changed lives.
  • Sunday Morning Service - it was definitely a crazy morning. The trailer with all our stuff was late getting to the school and then I realized that our audio snake was in my garage at home. After sending Travis to run and get it, we setup with just a few minutes to spare. The band got to do a quick sound check and then it was time for church to start. But through all the craziness, I felt like we had a great service. All the pieces just came together. Sometimes we need to be reminded that God is in control.
  • Homeschool Cooperative End of Year Program – Some of you know that we homeschool our children. I don’t talk a whole lot about homeschooling because we don’t try to force our opinion on anyone else. We just make a decision each year about what we feel is best for our kids, either to homeschool and send them to public school (there are no Christian schools in our area) Our kids are part of a cooperative that meets one day each week for classes, and they had their end of the year finale yesterday afternoon. I setup our church projector and ran powerpoint through easyworship for them. The program was LONG!!! After a couple of hours the kids were getting restless and we were definitely ready for it to be over. Luckily I was over in the corner running the powerpoint and I had internet access. I was able to blog and twitter while watching all the kids share what they had learned. Sometimes being the tech guy has benefits!
  • Youth and Another Local Revival – After the homeschool program, I rushed off to setup the church computer and projector for a local revival that our band was playing. It was supposed to be youth focused, so we moved our youth meeting time so our youth could attend. Most of our youth skipped out on the meeting which meant more pizza for me and then they talked themselves out of attending the revival. I was actually glad after going and realizing that there weren’t any teens there. It’s really strange in our area, there are very few teen events that are really focused on teens. The sad fact is that most churches try but are not effective in reaching out to teens. It just shows me how much of an opportunity we have at Cornerstone to engage the youth and young adult culture of the area.

After all that I was ready to crash yesterday. I just relaxed and watched a few episodes of Deadliest Catch. I love that show, there is something about guys being guys out in nature that I love. It was a great way to end up a crazy day.

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