Sticky Youth Group

I just got done reading Larry Osborne's Sticky Church and I was truly impressed. The main premise of the book is that Sermon-based small groups are an amazing way to make people stay at your church. It allows for authentic relationships to be formed, made and then maintained. All groups are on the very same page (even if they don't do the exact same thing). They all heard the sermon and are all dedicated to going deeper.

What does this have to do with Emerging Youth Ministry? I think it has a lot to do with it!

I hate to say this, but most of us Youth Pastors don't read outside of our own paradigm of Youth Ministry. We count (alot of times) the "Church" books as irrelevant to our situation and unusable because the concepts therein are set up for "older people" and not teens. This may or may not be the case...BUT there is always some great stuff to be learned within books that are zeroed in on the church, rather than simply youth ministry (eww, stepping on Doug Field's toes there...). To many times, we disregard GREAT ideas because they are for the older peeps in the pews.

This book is NOT like that. In fact Larry Osborne was a Youth Pastor...at one time, so he knows a bit about how we function as well. The practicality of this book will indeed assist with the paradigm shift that many Youth Ministry authors/speakers are calling for, namely Mark Oestreicher.

When I was reading this book, I was thinking to myself: "We could do that with Youth Group to produce a deeper sense of belonging".

Larry also answers some questions that were brought up in Youth Ministry 3.0, such as "how do we get a "think small" attitude for Youth Ministry?" The formatting of the sermon based small group does that and works from large to small group sizes.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a canned small group idea that will "explode your youth ministry"...because it definitely NEEDS to be adapted to your particular group. However, the ideas, strategies and QUESTIONS Larry asks will perk up your mind and make you think about how small groups can be a vital part of your Ministry.


Teens need belonging. Teens need a place where they can be authentic, real and open. A smaller setting does this for teens. This book has some great wisdom and I believe we as youth pastors can harness these great ideas and implement them into our paradigm.

Reading Youth Ministry books is GREAT...but we need to read outside of that as well. We can't be blind to the church movement. In fact, we are called to lead the next church movement, then the next one because we are continually raising up the next church generation...may we never lose sight of that. God is using us to not only bring new people into His flock, but to guide them on how to do church.

I am a huge advocate for small groups and doing "Lesson based" small groups. In fact it's how I've done it for a long time...this book helped me to question why I do it. It also gave me tools to make my small groups better and more efficient.

It gave me a fresh perspective on "Who am I trying to reach?" and "How am I going to do this".

I Small Groups in Youth Ministry and Church Ministry will get larger, hopefully better too. The reason is because small groups create an environment where authentic faith can happen.


I know some of you are thinking: "This is old hat...small groups? C'mon" I would agree...small groups is an old concept. Sometimes it bombs and sometimes it succeeds, this book gives answers as to why.

To conclude: Emerging Youth Ministry will continue to utilize small groups. With that said, we have to learn to do them right, have the right mindset, have the right leaders and have the right mode for our specific place of ministry. This book gives some great insight into all those things.

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Not that Type of Christian

I work part-time at Chili's. Everyone there knows I am a pastor. I've prayed with people, I've given hard truth to some of my Christian co-workers and I've had great chances to share my faith.

The other day, I received one of the BEST comments from a non-Christian I've ever received. He said: "You're not the normal type of Christian, that's why I like you and listen to you". Those words came from my General Manager (GM).

We were talking about faith, swearing, sex and the like. He asked my opinions on all of it. He openly refuted what I was saying and I simply said: "This is what's true. I know it to be true because I've experienced it, lived it and learned it. I'm not going to make you believe what I believe by cramming it down your throat. I'm not out to win an argument, but I want to win your heart". This is what caused him to say: "You're not the normal type of Christian, that's why I like you and listen to you"

Normally I don't put a post that seemingly pats myself on the back and I don't mean to do that with this post. I simply want to make a point.

He then described to me all the Nyack College and ATS (Alliance Theological Seminarians) whom he had discussed theology with in the past. He said they all wanted to argue until they won. He said he would refute them until he was blue in the face and eventually, they all walked away angry and upset that he wasn't listening to them or being won over by there amazing apologetic.

I told my GM that God convicted me of such Faith proclamations and asked me to seek out the persons heart rather than seeking a notch on my belt for winning yet another argument. I told him I desire to live my faith, not just argue for it. God has asked me to be a person who openly lives his faith and loves those around him (even if they refute what I say).

My GM then said: "You do that. That's why I like talking with you. I know I can't get a rise out of you. I hope we can continue to talk about this stuff."

Earlier, I said I want to make a point. Here it is: this is the type of evangelism/apologetic that must be adopted to meet the hunger for God that is there within this generation. Not being "that type of Christian" but being different. A group of people that seek to live their faith, not just argue for it.

Again, I am not saying I am the "poster boy" for this. In fact, this was ONE good story among plenty of HORRIBLE ones where I totally killed the gospel for people because I argued and bickered with them about how I was right and they were wrong. In those moments I didn't care to even HEAR them.

How can we teach our teens about the importance of living our their faith? How can we share with them that it is only through the Holy Spirit that this type of living is possible? How can we disciple our teens into surrendering their lives to Christ? These are all tough questions that we as Youth Pastors wrestle with EVERY day! I hope we can all encourage one-another to seek out these answers so we can see God use this generation to ignite a passion for His name!

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Powerful Experience

When I was a teenager, I participated in a Youth Experience a bit ahead of it's time.

I am sad to say that I have never done this event since I've been a Youth Pastor, but will plan on doing so next year. I wanted to, this year, but with the economic downturn and my going part-time, it was not feasible.

Anyways...this experience I speak of was called: "A Walk With Christ to the Cross". We started this experience by going to our churches Good Friday service, but stayed the entire evening to literally walk with Christ to the Cross.

We followed the week of Christ's passion through video, stations and story. We read and watched the events of The Passion week unfold in sequential order. I was 11 years old when I went through this experience and now as a 24 year old still remember the power it held for my walk with Jesus.

To experience the Passion Week in such detail, with such care taken to catch every aspect of Christ's death was incredible for me.

This is the type of "Emerging" event that gets people connected to the narrative of Christ, and allows them to be placed within the story...for we all are.

The Passion was for all of us. He bled and died so that we may live.

I hope to Walk With Christ to the Cross this Passion/Easter season.

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The Apologetics Code...

I recently blogged on this topic of "Apologetics belonging in Emerging Youth Ministry" and I said I would continue the discussion.

This is that continuation.

Since my last blog, I actually heard a sermon on the verses used last time which was pretty enlightening upon this subject. The sermon was titled: "Suffering to Bless" by Mark Driscoll. He took 1 Peter 3:8-17 and unpacked it for about an hour. I won't give you the whole sermon laid out, but I will give you the last point.

Mark throughout the sermon was discussing how we will suffer for the Gospel, or in general. Suffering is a part of life. He stated that this Scripture gives us 4 counter-weights in which to outweigh our suffering so that we may bless in the midst of it.

Weight #4 was Evangelism. (1 Peter 3:15-16). Below are his notes on this point:

Weight #4: Suffering Makes Evangelism Possible (1 Pet. 3:15–16)

• Suffer in such a way that you learn about Jesus and that other people may learn about Jesus too.
• Many Christians are good at winning arguments but could care less about winning people. Build respect and trust with people, and answer their questions with humility and honesty.
• People want to see if Christianity works, as demonstrated in relationships and community.
• Suffering allows us to be a humble, loving, considerate, respectful, gentle people that embody the gospel.

Community Group Question #5: Who can you evangelize? How?

I have to be honest...I love listening to Mark Driscoll preach and when he got to the bolded sub-points, I was shouting: "YES! Preach!"

Our teens need to hear this message. They need to know that evangelizing was never meant to be like a Jehovah's Witness, or a Mormon who goes door to door. Those types bug people in today's society. The reason? The people they are trying to talk to don't know them!

Say for example you go up to someone on the street and say: "I have something amazing to tell you about your life..." What would that persons response be? Probably something like this: "How can you tell me about my life, when I don't know you?"

Then how can we tell them about their future life?

This 1 Peter passage is clear-cut on how and when we should have an answer ready, when people know us. When people see us suffering, yet for some reason able to take the blows. Always be ready to give a answer.

I know I've hit this piece pretty well. I am going to continue to unpack this, because it is vital that we GET THIS RIGHT. We can't shove Jesus down peoples throats, we have to live Jesus, show Jesus and then be questioned about Jesus!

*If you want to read the notes on the whole sermon as well as listen to the sermon, go here: "Suffering to Bless"*

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