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Seekers or Followers? Part Two

September 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Last Thursday we ran part one of this post. We asked the question, “Are your students seekers of Christ or do they just follow the crowd?”

“Now seek the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.” – 1 Chronicles 22:19

How do you tell who is a seeker and who is a follower in your group? One way is to see which students don’t show up for small group or for church when their friends are not going to be there. They might be coming just to socialize with their friends. That’s not entirely a bad thing, they are still coming to church or to small group, but they won’t grow in their faith if that’s the primary reason they come. I’ve also discovered that the more a student is seeking Christ, the more involved they are in small group time and the more they participate. Even the ones who are normally quiet will get more involved in the discussion as they begin to seek Jesus more and more.

When you’re seeking Christ you look for him everywhere in your life, not just in your time at church. One of the best ways to turn students into “seekers of Christ” is to get them in the habit of having a daily quiet time. Time reading their Bible and time in prayer and time to listen for God in their life. I know for me a daily quiet time makes all the difference in the world. If I go a couple of days without a quiet time I feel it, I start feeling disconnected.

Service projects are another way to turn your students into seekers of Christ. We show our love for Christ by showing our love for each other by serving. Find a service project that is just right for your group. What works for one group might not work for another group.

I watch my students during worship time on the weekends. Are they just standing there or are they singing and participating during worship songs. I love to watch students worship way more than adults. Students who are really seeking God in their hearts are not afraid or ashamed to sing and sing loud!

Once you turn your students into seekers, do not sit back and think your job is done…it’s just beginning!  Find studies and lessons that challenge them, find ways to grow and stretch them. Also ask yourself, am I a seeker or just a follower? Really think that out. Students often emulate what they see, if they see you seeking Christ with all your heart they will also! Above all, hang in there and don’t give up. Sometimes we are just planting a seed in a student’s mind and God is going to grow that seed at a later time.

Are you doing all you can to help your students seek Christ in all areas of their lives?

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Seekers or Followers? Part One

September 15, 2011 by 1 Comment

 

Note: This post started out as a quick thought after talking to a student today that I see on the Saddleback Church Campus on a weekly basis. Before I started writing I did my normal time of praying to God for the right words and thoughts and before I knew it I had a two-part post! This is Part One.  Part Two will run next Tuesday. In the meantime, I’d love your feedback on this please!

Are we working towards turning out a generation of seekers or followers? Ask yourself that question and just let it rattle around in your head for a moment before you answer and before I explain what I’m talking about.

Are you working towards getting your students to truly seek Jesus everywhere and not just at church on the weekend? Or are they just being shown what it is to be a follower?  By follower I mean someone who is just following the crowd he is with at the time. He is there in spirit but his heart is not in what he is doing. Church is something he does on the weekend with his or her friends, but once the weekend is over there is not much talk or thought or mention of Jesus or God in their life until the next weekend when they come back to church.

I guess this is what I mean when I say that students don’t need religion, they need a relationship with God.

When you have a student in a crisis, is God the first call they make or is He an afterthought? Do they have a regular daily quiet time with God and communicate with Him or is their communication time with God just that hour they are in a student ministry service on the weekend? Are they in a small group? If they are in a small group do they just go there each week or do they participate? Maybe they are still at a stage in their walk with God that they are still “baby Christians”. If that’s the case then we need to work towards their spiritual maturity.

Maybe they are at a point where they have lost the passion for God. (Click here to see Steven’s post on this topic) As leaders we need to do all we can to help them work through this time, and once again become a seeker.

Want some tips on how to get your students to be seekers and not just following the crowd? On Tuesday I’ll share what has worked for me in my life and how I translate that to students.

Filed Under: Small Groups, Spriritual Life, Youth Ministry Tagged With: , , , ,

Where did the passion go? – Part 2

September 8, 2011 by 1 Comment

On Tuesday I wrote about the problem of losing your passion. If you haven’t read that yet, head over there and you’ll get the setup for today’s post. Today we’ll go into how to bring the passion back if you know you’ve lost it.

When I realized I lost my passion, I got very troubled. I didn’t know how long my passion had been gone, why it went away, or even how I could get it back. All I knew was I saw people with passion, and I wanted to be like them. I wanted to have this burning passion for God and a passion for seeking Him and wanting to pursue Him. So how do you do that if you feel like that inherent passion is gone?

The answer is actually quite simple, but most people probably don’t think about it. We need to pursue that passion even when we don’t feel like it. Let me explain: If you feel like your passion is gone for God, you need to pursue God by bringing yourself closer to Him. If you feel burned out in youth ministry and don’t feel like your passion is there, you need to immerse yourself in it.

Most of the time when you lose passion for something, it didn’t go anywhere. You did. In order to get back to the “on fire” stage, you need to move closer to where you were before. For me, this meant seeking out God more. I spent a lot more intentional time in prayer, asking God to light the fire I know I have. I also made sure to spend more time in His Word. By seeking God, I brought myself closer to Him. It was difficult at first because I didn’t feel like what I was doing made a difference, but I soon realized it made all the difference in the world.

I don’t know where your passion went. Maybe it’s just part of the normal cycle, or maybe there was a specific event that killed your passion. What I do know is that your original burning passion is still there. You just have to draw closer to it, and you’ll escape the “lack of passion” stage and go back to being “on fire.”

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Where did the passion go? – Part 1

September 6, 2011 by 2 Comments

Recently I’ve been dealing with the struggle of passion. Not necessarily passion for youth ministry, but just passion in general. In my eyes, this is something I’ve seen most Christians go through in some way or another. Here’s the cycle I usually see:

  • On fire. Your passion is through the roof, you can’t get enough of God, and you do everything you can to get more of Him in your life.
  • Dying out. After a while, the passion starts to diminish. Maybe you get busy, don’t put as much time aside for God, or things are just going well so you don’t turn to Him.
  • Lack of passion. After a time of dying out, you feel disconnected. You just don’t feel a passion for God. Maybe you even get to the point of doubting your faith. At the very least, you are stagnant in your faith.
  • The fire gets re-lit. Somehow you turn things around and start heading in a positive direction. The fire of passion gets re-lit and you return to the “on-fire” stage.

I think the real question that needs to be answered is: how do we get from the “lack of passion” stage back to the “on-fire” stage?

This is a real cycle that we go through. In my life, I just recently got out of a “lack of passion” stage, but it did take work to get the passion back. On Thursday I will give my answer to the question above. How do we get the passion back if we feel like it’s not there anymore?

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It Starts with Passion

May 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This is my third year being involved with volunteer youth ministry. I’ve probably talked about how I got started in junior high ministry in blog posts on other websites, but in a nutshell, my first event was summer camp, then one of my good friends talked me into leading a C-Group (what Saddleback Church calls junior high small groups), and I’ve stuck around ever since. A realization came to me today: my first junior high ministry event may have been summer camp, but my journey in youth ministry started with passion.

Passionate fans

When I first decided I wanted to volunteer with junior high ministry, I had no idea how far it would take me. To be honest, I didn’t even want to continue with it after summer camp was over. In my mind, when I was in junior high I hadn’t gotten much out of being in a small group (or so I thought at the time), so why would I waste my time pouring into students that might feel the same way? What I didn’t realize is that God had already lit a fire in me. I had seen some of the change that youth ministry produces in students. I’m exhibit A of a life changed through summer camp and youth ministry, so why did I continue on even when I didn’t think I could make a difference? The answer is passion.

I’ve been serving ever since I was in elementary school. I’ve helped out with different children’s ministry events ever since I was in fifth grade, but that was what I knew I was supposed to do as a Christ-follower. I didn’t necessarily know why at the time, but it just made sense. As I got older, so did my ministry. Until finding junior high ministry, it was just a duty; I wasn’t serving because I loved doing it, I did it because I was supposed to. It took me two years of small groups, three years at summer camp, and a 3-month internship to finally realize that God planted a passion for youth on my heart, but once I made that realization, there was no stopping me from continuing on the path God has lit before me. You realize your true passions when your mind constantly visits a certain idea; for me, that idea is youth ministry.

My challenge to you is this: find your passion. Chances are you’ve already discovered it, you just haven’t unpacked it yet. It took me a long time to realize I was passionate about youth ministry, but I’m glad God opened my eyes to it before I missed it.

What are your passions?

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