Free Food...

Last night we had our team recognition dinner for those who qualified state championships.  It's always one of my most favorite events of the year.  It takes a lot for these kids to achieve the times and scores necessary to be a part of the festivities.  One of my athletes snap chatted the following picture:

I would gladly buy as many meals as needed for these athletes to put in such incredible effort.  For all of the time that they have toiled… getting yelled at, pushed harder than they ever have been before, losing sleep, living tired days…

My question is: what is the payoff for which you are striving?  Like these young athletes, each of us needs something bigger than us.  Latch onto something that brings you joy, and run for it with everything you've got.  And one day, someone just might buy you a free meal… Purchased only by your blood, sweat, and tears.

Your ministry footprint

Do you ever feel like you are not making an impact? well, if not, give it some time and you will get there. we all do. you put in tons of time to students and staff and it seems that you are always behind. Behind in your work, your messages, the souls you should be winning for JC. I know, it is frustrating. but it takes time. and Cobb told me that it would take a lot more time than i even thought it would take. yes, there are the small victories, but to win the war you must go through a lot of battles. you will lose a lot of those battles. you will win a lot of them as well. however, the war is much longer and requires the big picture in mind. you cannot be a “small thinker” if you are going to impact others’ lives long term.

you need to start putting those ministry miles on your odometer. you have to keep going. there are going to be events that you do well, and of course the ones you will botch and totally jack up. both types are going to be beneficial. you have to lose to know how sweet it feels to win. you have to spend month, even years putting into someone or a group of peeps that does not turn out the way you would have hoped to understand what God means by perseverance. you have to oversleep because you are so exhausted from the previous four days of non-stop, sleep-deprived madness to know what it feels like to be a sixty-four year old man when in reality you are a college kid. you have to keep going.

you need to pray like mad for God to for understanding and reasoning for why you would spend your college years learning stuff that you thought you would never use, only to find out years later that it was part of making your foundation and philosophy of ministry. you need to wear out your shoes playing football on Thanksgiving Day for the annual Turkey Bowl, knowing that someone will inevitably get hurt and it will be your fault. you need to rip perfectly good clothing at camps because some JH boy thinks that you are a rag doll, knowing he out-weighs you by forty pounds.

Wear out your clothes, shoes, vehicle, personal stuff... and you will ensure you will never wear out your welcome. put others before yourself and know that you have to put the miles on. and when your shoes are so worn out that you have to replace them you will know that you are making an impact. it is the wear and tear on your life and ministry that will prove that you are doing what you are supposed to be doing. God is faithful, you only need to rise to the occasion and make a difference within that goodness. your ministry is counting on you to make the difference.

when you feel like you are at the end of your rope, give a little more. spend more time with your mentors, replenish your energy and fill your tank. you know that your ministry is going to take a lot out of you, so be ready for it. plan for it. walk the miles. put in the time and you will always know where you are on this crazy journey. and when it is time to walk a new path within your calling to ministry... you will be ready.

It takes time...

Believe you me. If there is a place for you to start in ministry, then this is it. I do not care if you are the youth pastor coming into a church of five or five hundred. You will have to put in the time to make your church grow in every way. First of all, you are going to have to grow in your influence. If you do not do this then nothing good will ever happen. And if it does, it will be in spite of what you do for the group. It is important to know that the time that you put in will pay off. You just have to do it. I was talking with a youth pastor just the other day and he asked me what he needed to do as a new guy in the game. He is young, vibrant, and a great communicator. The guy loves JC a ton and wants to change the world. However, he is also a youth guy with a wife and like a bunch of kids. This is not the best choice necessarily for him to make concerning financials, but he believes in what God is doing and willing to put in the time and make the sacrifice. He asked me where to start.

The best place for him to start is with the peeps in his church, specifically the persons putting time into his ministry. There are parents and collegians that believe in the group, not really him yet. And he gets all frustrated because he feels like peeps do not want to listen to him. They do not think that he has very good ideas but he knows that they will work and that this is the best way to do ministry. Now, what I told him, after I was done laughing because this situation was all too familiar and close to home for me, was that he had to go on a mission. His first couple of years is going to be all about building relationships. Even if peeps would have known him before he took over the ministry (which they did not) he would really only get a pass for the first couple of months. After that it is all about your merits. And the fact is that when you are the new youth pastor no one expects you to stay around. So, you must earn your way into the hearts of those you intend to lead. And leading means that you have to serve and serve until you cannot serve anymore. And then you serve some more.

The most frustrating thing is to put time into someone or a group of peeps that end up falling off the face of the earth. But that is what you are going to have to do if you are going to make an impact in ministry. As you continue on in ministry your radar will get stronger and you will know who you need to put your time into. And I am speaking of potential leaders of course. You are only one person. If you try to do everything you will not be good at anything. Focus your time. And if it is your first couple years of ministry you will feel a lot of the time that you are not getting anything accomplished. You will spend tons of time with peeps that come and go in your ministry. But this is where you build your character.

You have to be the one to stick around. You have to be the one to persevere. When you feel that no one else is buying into your vision, keep on going and sooner or later, sometimes much later, peeps will jump on board and your group will begin to grow, in every way you were hoping. But you have to know what you want for your group. You have to be the one to set the direction. This will help you to be intentional in the time you spend with peeps on your staff. They deserve your best. So spend some sleepless nites thinking about and praying for them. You should never just hang out with your staff peeps but instead have goals and dreams for them and their areas of ministry. Start with the cream of the crop and go from there. It will build a successful ministry and add value to others.