Summer Camp and Your Calling

Like other youth workers, my students love going away to summer camp. We have a camp that our church supports so many of them go there and they sing the praises of Lakeside. Other families in our church return to the camps of their childhood and they take their teens with them. Our church families attend 5-7 different camps over the summer. They return almost glowing from excitement because of what they experienced with God, other believers, and God’s creation.

I love what happens at camps; the bonding, the dynamic worship, the excitement and more. Despite all these great things, I don’t think I’d ever be able to minister at a Christian camp.

A few years ago a friend discussed the possibility of me joining his ministry team. This ministry hosts camps around the country, during the summer for Christian students. The idea was very tempting. I would be able to give 8-10 talks and master them by giving them everywhere I went. My family would be able to travel with me, driving cross-country (no private jets, this isn’t a televangelist’s ministry), and be with me during the summer. The worship team would always be dynamic. There would always be a big crowd of students and we would almost always deliver a life changing experience.

It never was officially offered and it was tempting but not for long. I realized that it’d be a fun ride but that it wasn’t the real world. Great things come from camp experiences but they are a short season in life, they are not life itself. I’d rather deal with the grunge work of day to day church ministry than the mountain top experiences that we associate with camp. Church youth ministry often isn’t glamorous but it's impact will last much longer because we provide a long term relationship during the times of broken hearts, stupid mistakes, questioning faith, out right rebellion. We’re also there during the times when they take what they’ve learned at camp or church and share their faith with their friends and that friend comes to faith.

Work is difficult, whichever work you may be doing, but I hope that you keep your eyes on the prize that God has set before us. Don’t be discouraged in the day to day grunge of your calling but be glad that God allows you to serve students and see lives changed, both in your church and at camp.

Originally appeared in Interlinc's YLO (Youth Leaders Only) Spring 2004

My Old Guys, that Rock!

I'm fortunate to have a Triumvirate of Old Youth Ministry Guys who I call upon for advice and encouragement. Each of the three has over 30 years of youth ministry experience and they are all valued contributors to my life and my ministry.

Find the Old Guys
Don't sit and wait for a veteran youth worker to come alongside you and invest in you and your ministry. It could happen but it probably won’t. If you actively seek an Old Guy the odds of you finding one will dramatically increase. Get connected to your local youth ministry network, if you don’t have one, start one. Contact the National Network of Youth Ministries for more information on joining or starting a youth ministry network in your area. If you can't find an Old Guy in your area become an avid reader and let great minds mentor you; game books don’t count!

Learn from the Old Guys
They have gray hair for a reason; they have survived. Church splits, angry parents, suicides, Emergency room visits, manipulative pastors, Jell-o wrestling, you name it; they've survived it. Some mistakes were their own making while others they had nothing to do with it. Learn from their experiences, the good ones and the bad ones.

Listen to the Old Guys
When you are around someone who can invest in you, ask a question, then shut up and listen. Once I was fortunate enough to be around legendary Youth Guy (He's written more books than some youth workers have ever read!) and he was just telling us stories from when he was a pup in youth ministry land. He talked about some crazy things his youth ministry did and the responses that happened. Despite the craziness of some things the emphasis was how God worked and what God was still doing in his ministry. It was a great time together with a few friends. I didn't walk away and record the ideas to do, rather I walked away inspired to remain passionate about youth ministry like he was and to look for God at work.

Become the Old Guy and find others.
I've been in full time youth ministry for only ten years and yet over the last couple of years I already I find myself investing in younger guys who are longing for someone to help them and encourage them. I've developed some good friendships with these younger youth pastors. Typically they have found me, by the way. I don't feel quite ready for this but I know I wouldn't be if it weren't for "My Old Guys, that Rock!"

Originally appeared in Interlinc's YLO (Youth Leaders Only) Summer 2004

Excel-ling at Relational Ministry

My most frustrating moments were always when, after a day of near constant work, it seemed I had nothing to show for my labors. But one day I had an epiphany; I realized it wouldn't be too difficult to track my time with students. Ok, so it's not original but it was an epiphany for me. I discovered that one of the most practical and effective tools for ministry is a contact chart.

A simple layout in a word processing or a spreadsheet program lets me track where my time is going and make changes accordingly. I know who I'm contacting and I can quickly realize which students need more of my time. This record of my time also protects me from those who question what I do.

I note the type of each contact, so that I know, for instance, that over the last three months, I've had interactions with Dan Johnson through five phone calls, one note, two visits, nine church chats, one lunch and one school event. This totals to 19 contacts in three months. Since Dan is one of my leaders I want him to get a lot of my time. If a students total was only 7, then I'd know I needed to spend more time with that kid.

EVERY contact counts, which is why one of my categories of contact is "church chat." These are those twenty to sixty seconds of small talk that seem to fill my Sundays. These chats give me the information I use to follow up with more personal contacts later. On Monday, I'll write a note about on how sorry I was to hear their guinea pig died or that I'll be praying for them as they give their oral report on Tuesday.

These may seem like small things, but the small ones lead to medium ones and medium ones to big ones. (If I deposit a quarter or $25 into my bank account I get a receipt. If you deposit a small amount or a large amount of love/caring into a student's life, you get credit!) Many of my contacts come on Sunday or at our midweek event, but I follow up on those interactions, these small ones lead to deeper trust, which leads to deeper ministry.

Once my contact sheet even protected me from a Mom who accused me on not talking to either one of her daughters in while. I looked at my records and I told her that I talked to the older daughter two days ago and that I mailed a note to the younger one two weeks ago. The mom said that she never got the letter, despite my assuring her that it was sent. A week later she called me and apologized because her husband had lost the letter in a huge stack of mail.

It's certainly not the most important factor, but when church leaders or parents want to know what I've been doing with my time or how much contact I've had with little Timmy, I have my contact chart. But beyond justifying my use of time, my chart keeps me accountable. I can't claim ignorance. If a kid fades away, the contact chart will show whether nor not I did everything I could. And, well, it's nice when you can walk into a board meeting and report that over the last four months you have made over four hundred contacts involving a variety of students.

This originally appeard in the March/April 2002 issue of Youthworker Journal.