If you haven’t seen this, I posted a 5 minute video highlighting me speaking to teens. If you want to know exactly why I do what I do with youth ministry, just listen to the first minute.

After listening, feel free to send any comments my way.

And, if you’re still wracking your brain over how to communicate the Truth of the Christmas season (once again) this year, you’re not totally at a loss.

The weeks leading up to Christmas will all to soon fly by and between the holiday parties, special church services, year-end staff meetings, teen’s Christmas plays, volunteering at the local shelter, egg-nog, mall shopping, online shopping, hosting the church food drive…etc…WHEW…

…you may be in a panic for solid lessons/messages to communicate the power and wonder of the birth of our Lord.

If you’re still worrying over how to make your Christmas lessons drive home the meaning of the season, consider these quick options:

1. Video/Documentary Story

This option requires the most prep of all the options. But, it can be a powerful visual and experiential tool for your ministry. You’ll need a few video savvy teens,  a camera, and a few hours on location. Give your teens the assignment to take a Saturday (or any free day) and create a video portraying some aspect of the first Christmas story if it happened today!

Just imagine if Christ were born today! To whom would the angels bring the good news? –the homeless, city sanitation workers…?

Instruct your teens to act out the story (or recruit their friends and family to get involved). Let your teens be creative with this and maybe even make a contest for best video!

2. Host a Birthday Party for Jesus

Everyone loves a party and Christmas seems to be the best excuse to have one! But, design a Christmas party that is obviously a birthday party…for Jesus. As cheesy and/or obvious as that sounds there is plenty of room for sharp lessons about the meaning of Christmas in the midst of all the fun. Christmas is all about presents under the tree, right? Well, what if the presents were for Jesus? What does a teenager give to Jesus for his birthday? Let your teens be creative and find out! And, maybe we all could take this opportunity to learn the phrase, “Christmas is not MY birthday.”

3. Teach Christmas Carols for Worship

Most of us know at least a few Christmas carols…but do we know what they mean or where they came from. I used this lesson last year and it really opened up the teens appreciation for the “same old Christmas carols” they’d heard for years. You can teach theology through them. I think of lyrics like, “Behold Him arise/King and God and Sacrifice/Hallelujah, hallelujah peel through the earth and skies.”

Also, consider changing your usual youth service schedule to present your message on carols at the beginning followed by worship using the very Christmas carols you talked about.

4. Bring Christmas to Someone

Plan to caravan your teens to a nursing home/shelter/halfway house and bring Christmas to them. Be sure to notify, discuss, and plan ahead with a contact or agent of whatever organization you think your youth ministry should visit. Coordinate snacks and Christmas-y food to bring if you like. Have your teens be prepared to “bring” Christmas to someone else rather than have another party given to the teens.

Let the love and attitude of Christmas be shown through your youth ministry to someone else in your community.

A few years ago, I ran into an old college friend who’d become a youth minister in the area. After the usual catch-up conversation we started sharing our experiences in youth ministry. We’d traded a few ideas and suggestions for each other to take back to our churches. But, the thing I remember him saying the most and unfortunately, will probably never forget was, “Aaron, when your preaching to the kids, remember — it’s 10% message and 90% fluff.”  According to him the teens couldn’t “hang on to more’n that.”

Shock would be a simple way of describing how I felt. At the time, I didn’t let on more than slight unease with his assessment of “preaching to the kids”.

To put it plainly, the message is what youth ministries need more of and not less. Our youth ministries need more than dodge ball and loud Christian music in the speakers. If teens just wanted another pizza party or a place to just be distracted by the “fluff” they’d get it somewhere/anywhere else.

Your teens need to hear the truth of the Good News and not a watered down mantra of pluralistic humanism. Teens need to hear that the Great Commission was commanded to them too. Teens need to hear the tough sayings of Christ. Teens need to hear that the world is not all about them. Teens need/want to be challenged to better their community…and you, dear Youth Worker, are in the very position to communicate all these things.

So don’t water the message down.

And frankly, by the time most teens have reached high school in this country they are ready for something more than the “milk” we tend to feed them in our youth ministry sermons. If our teens can devote hours to school athletics, humanitarian clubs, and online forums to help-save-the-world-one-cause-at-a-time…why can’t we believe they’ll follow along if our message gets above a 3rd grade level?

Lastly, I ask you to consider the future of our teens when they graduate our youth ministries if we don’t begin to feed them more meat in the message now. You don’t have to hypothesize what society will be like generations from now – just imagine 2 years after graduation: your teens will be entering their 20′s and deep in the working world or the college path. They will have met people who don’t believe in their God and they’ll debate very logical reasons for their doubt. Your teens will meet kind and intelligent people who will see no need for God’s saving grace in their life…what will your teen’s response be? Will their hearts and minds be prepared to claim their faith as “the evidence of things unseen”?

Will you give your teens and your youth ministry a deep foundation to stand on? Message or Fluff? Meat or Milk?

Be sure to check out more resources and thoughts on youth ministry at my website www.shaversrazor.com

Last week I read my friend Bryan’s blog about the virtue of patience and his thoughts on the subject are sticking with me.

Reading Bryan’s blog I realized that I too have a problem with patience…but who doesn’t, right. What struck me while reading Bryan’s post was just how often and how easily I place limits, markers, …deadlines on God. Yeah. It goes something like this:

GOD: Aaron, be ready to pick up and go where I tell you to go.

ME: Yes, sir!

one week later

ME: GOD, I’ve found exactly the place you want me to go! Thanks so much for your help!

GOD: Aaron, I didn’t tell you to go there.

ME: Well…not yet you didn’t …but I’ve faithfully waited on you for a week now.

GOD: I didn’t tell you to go there.

ME: Right… but I know you would have…it’s perfect right. And, no need to wait if I’ve already found what I -I mean, you want for me!

I like to think I’m ready to be faithful to God’s calling on my life like Abraham was faithful and like Moses was faithful. But how long would I wait for Him to say “GO”? Especially right now, while I am searching for the next step in ministry employment, I find myself tempted to impose a deadline on God to reveal His plan.

And, if He doesn’t come through on that deadline…will I convince myself that my impatient scheme is really His calling on my life?

I’ve been brutally honest and open about myself.

How about you? Do you impose deadlines on God?

Today’s post is from Andy Whisenant -Christian, humanitarian, and mac & cheese connoisseur. You can catch his thoughts on life and follow his journey at his blog, Andy in Progress. Also, be sure to follow Andy on Twitter: @andywhiz

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I was posed a question the other day that, if I’m completely honest, has been bugging the heck out of me because I’m afraid of what the answer to that question really is.

My pastor was teaching the other day and asked a question that stopped me dead in my tracks…

“What voices are you allowing to lead you?”

Ouch. That one kind of stung because I think know I’ve been avoiding dealing with the ramifications of how I answer that question for a long time.

I eventually sat down and started to think through what voices I let lead my thinking and understanding of who God is and who I am. More often than I’d like to admit, I listen to the crappy voices in my head who try to tell me who I am. Maybe you’ve heard these voices too…

·                 The voice that says I’m not good enough

·                 The voice that says I’m not qualified

·                 The voice that says I’m not experienced enough

·                 The voice that says I’m just a failure

·                 The voice that says my past defines who I am

·                 The voice that says what I do determines my value as a person

·                 The voice that says I’m not worthy of God’s love

·                 The voice that says I’m too far gone for grace

·                 The voice that says I’m too messed up to be used by God

Yeah, I know what you’re going to say…those things aren’t who I really am in Christ. And I would agree with you. It’s just that sometimes, those other voices are so loud, it makes it hard to hear the one voice that makes any sense. (Be patient, I’m still working through this whole following Christ thing.)

I get to points in my life where I listen to these other voices more than anything else. I let them define me and shape me. I get to the point where I hear these voices so much that what they’re saying becomes truth in my mind.

But when I look at this thing we call the gospel story, I hear a whole different voice speaking to me.

I hear hope. Hope for myself and for everyone else who hears these voices bouncing around in their heads telling them they’re a nobody.

Because of this “good news” Jesus spent His time talking about, I can begin to understand who I really am because of who He says I am, not because of what I think about who I am.

Rob Bell argues that “the gospel is the counterintuitive, joyous, exuberant news that Jesus has brought the unending, limitless, stunning love of God to even us.”

This news changes everything. This gospel story screams loudly that I am loved, not rejected. It says I can live in hope, not despair. It says I can know peace, not unrest. It says I am unarguably, unconditionally, irrevocably, eternally loved by the Creator.

And so are you.

So may we learn to listen to this voice that is constantly screaming the beautiful reality of the gospel story.

If nobody has ever said that than I just did and you can quote me. But we all understand what that quote means. The significance of the word “love” is lost if you frequently apply it to how you feel about favorite foods or designer clothing.

Michael Kelley believes much of the language describing the Christian faith has lost its meaning. And, he’s fighting to rescue it.

I just finished reading through HOLY VOCABULARY, a new Bible study from LifeWay Press. This is Michael Kelley’s latest work within LifeWay’s Threads Department which specializes in Bible study media for young adults.

HOLY VOCABULARY is a group study experience that prompts discussion and study of the themes presented…so, reading it on my own didn’t quite give me the full effect. But I have to say, even without the chatty debate among friends, I relished it!

Michael has structured this study over seven themes (God, Humanity, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Church, End Times, Scripture) that allow the discussion of several common words of the Christian faith…like sin, holy, fruit, lost, sanctify, filled…etc. As the cover states, this Bible study is an endeavor to rescue “the language of [Christian] faith.” Michael isn’t shy about laying out the Biblical context for why sin is called sin, …and why Jesus calls unbelievers “lost”. Even from the first chapter, the word “holy” is given a stronger context when Michael shares the story of God striking dead the man who touched the Ark of the Covenant. That would be a story most pastors would avoid sharing on a Sunday sermon but Michael utilizes that passage to regain the full significance of that word…HOLY.

HOLY VOCABULARY is concise, direct, strong in theology and ripe for discussion.

If you want to order this Bible study for your small group or personal study, check it out here.

You can also view a promo video for HOLY VOCABULARY at Michael’s blog here.

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I don’t know about you, but I grew up watching the A-Team on TV. It was the mid-eighties and I was a teenager, so the fantasy of being on the A-Team was attractive. I wanted to be cool and powerful and funny and to be able to do good when other people couldn’t (or wouldn’t).  

In my ever-so-mature 13-year-old brain, I wondered if I could be on the A-Team. And What it would take. And which character I would be (B.A. Baracus, of course).  

Right now are you thinking, “He’s not too bright is he?”  

Of course I knew that the A-Team was a TV show. It wasn’t real. But that didn’t make me stop wishing or dreaming.  

I’m Older Now

Now I’m in my mid(ish)-thirties. I don’t dream about being on the A-Team any more – at least not too often. I still have some of the wide-eyed wonder of that 13-year old I used to be. Not all of it, mind you. Some of it I’ve traded in. Some of it I still have – but now my focus has changed.  

I’m not nearly as concerned about how to survive a fire-fight or how I’d transform a van into a tank in 30-minutes flat using only an acetylene torch, some sheet metal, and a stick of gum. I’m more concerned about how I might live so that my life has eternal value. Eternal impact.  

If I dared allow myself to wish, I’d wish that my life would matter. That I’d be important. That I would be able to overcome insurmountable odds so that the Kingdom of God could be established. Now that would ROCK!  

If I dared let myself wish, I’d wish that I was on God‘s A-Team.  

I Don’t Qualify For God’s A-Team

Of course, I know that I’m not qualified to be on God’s A-Team. I can’t save myself much less somebody else. I can scarcely, even at my best, keep my focus on God and his unmistakable grace. I know what I should do but I am inconsistent at best. Or, I should say that I don’t qualify on my own merits. I’m selfish and sometimes arrogant and I sure don’t have enough talent.  

Truth be told, I have company here. None of us are sufficient. None of us are good enough. Nobody in the Bible was good enough, either (except Jesus, of course).  

But that’s the beauty of the Kingdom of God – it doesn’t depend on us. It depends totally on God! On how sufficient God is. On his strength and compassion and wisdom and knowledge.  

There is no B-Team

That’s right! There is no B-Team. If you’re with God, you’re automatically on his A-Team.  

If you are in Christ, you are a new creation (1 Corinthians 5:17) and are being formed into the likeness of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17,18). You have an eternal destiny and a divine calling of God to be effective in his Kingdom. To know him and love him and honor him and enjoy him.  

And to share his love and compassion with others. To be part of what HE’s doing on the earth.  

And THAT does totally ROCK!  

This is a video clip from Degree 180 Young Adult Ministry. I was asked to speak to their group and it was really a great opportunity to meet some very genuine and intelligent people who are honestly striving to get closer to God.

Ever found yourself looking back on a situation in life or a distant place where you came from and when you contrast it against where you are now you wonder, “WHEN DID EVERYTHING CHANGE?”

I’ve found that it is important to take note of the bad times as well as the good. Admit that the financial stress last year was BAD or the professional recognition this year was GOOD. Call it like it is. A spade is a spade.

Or is it?…

When Moses approached God at the burning bush, we read that God asked Moses a question. “Moses,” He says, “what is that in your hand?”

“My staff,” Moses replies. Consider this: do you really think God asked Moses that question because He didn’t know what he held in his hand? I think God want Moses to firmly establish in his own mind by saying out loud exactly what was in his hand. A staff. Dead wood, inanimate, easily manipulated by Moses’ hands.

As soon as Moses declares what is in fact in his hand, God transforms that staff into a snake. A living, moving, and not easily manipulated serpent. God’s power displays itself again by transforming Moses’ healthy hand into a leprous diseased limb. And, just as quickly, God restores his hand back to perfect health.

Maybe our circumstances don’t turn a 180 or change from a stick to serpent and back again as quickly as this, but there is power in acknowledging where you are in your bad circumstance and calling it what it is. God doesn’t leave the circumstance there…He changes it/transforms it/empowers it/restores it in a miraculous way that we have no power to do alone.

He wanted Moses to acknowledge what was in his hand. There would be no mistaking that serpent for some common variety cave-snake and Moses wouldn’t be searching the cave for his misplaced staff.

Don’t mistake the transformation in your life for a common or serendipitous occurence. Remember where you came from and look at where you are now. Did you do that on your own or did you watch God transform your “staff”.

CALL IT WHAT IT IS.

Have you experienced a moment where you wondered when it all changed?

I asked the room of people to text me their tough questions about the Bible and life in general and I would answer them during my message. The catch is I ONLY HAVE A MINUTE TO ANSWER EACH QUESTION.

Let’s see what happened…