People define success in a lot of different ways.  And in ministry, how we define success ultimately drives what we do.  For me, today, I saw success.  It was sweet.  Real sweet.  I’ve waited almost two years to see it, but it was well worth it.

I met with a college age guy today who I have grown to love.  Two years ago he was, well, sort of a wreck.  He had very little, if any, discipline.  He didn’t work, played all the time and was doing little more than floating through life.  No direction, very little godly passion.

Today was different.

I’ve seen a young man grow up.  He has taken steps over the last two years that I have seen.  And recently, it seems like leaps.  This guy is connected to our church, to older believers that he’s grown to love and trust.  They, along with me, have walked alongside him slowly and lovingly speaking truth into his life.  And God has used it.  Today his spiritual growth and godly thought processes are now encouraging those around him.  His growth is evident and nobody questions it.

I write this blog as an encouragement to you.  Two years ago nobody would’ve guessed that this guy would be leading by example the way he is.  The coolest thing is he doesn’t even realize it…he’s just growing one day at a time, one step.  Success.

So, you know that person you’re meeting with that doesn’t seem to get it and you might even be questioning whether or not it’s worth your time?  Yeah.  Hold on.  Pay the price of time.  People like them are often the biggest blessings in ministry.  Continue to pray, be patient and faithful.  You might be surprised what happens two years from now…

Sometimes we get caught up in “doing” ministry.  And then there are times when ministry just happens.  Last night ministry just happened.  And, typical of this, it was tough.

A friend’s wife all of the sudden had extreme pain in her stomach.  She was pregnant, so there was obvious concern.  The pain was so intense she was passing out.  She was rushed to the hospital by ambulance, and had emergency surgery.  She had a tubal pregnancy that burst.  It’s when an egg is fertilized and begins to grow, but in the tube, not the uterus.  The fetus grew to a point where it caused the tube to burst.  This caused a lot of internal bleeding.  After surgery the doctor’s words were, “If you would’ve waited any longer she wouldn’t have made it.”

In a flash.  Just like that.

One of our other elders was at the hospital with me, so we prayed for her prior to surgery.  This was a great time.  But, for me, the best was seeing all the support that came around.  People were showing up to the hospital, just to be there…and remained there throughout the entire night.  People even took today off work to take care of things at the house for this couple or to watch their daughter, or just to be present.  Ministry happened.

I’ve been teaching through 1 Peter in my church.  And in the beginning we see the beauty of trials – they are for the proving of faith.  I have seen faith being proven in the last 15 or so hours.  I have seen ministry just happen.  As I was eating lunch with my friend today in the hospital cafe, he said, “It was so cool to immediately have a list of people I could call that I knew would drop everything to help us.”  He then said, “It’s so nice to be loved like that.”

Times like this are tough, but so healthy too.  It’s not beyond emotion, for sure, but there are some great things that come out of trials like this.  And as we move forward in life where emotions will begin to settle with the loss of unborn twins (yes, there were two), it’s all the more opportunity for ministry to happen.  Naturally.  It’s a beautiful thing to watch the body of Christ be the body to the body.

I came across an article called, “Fast Growing Christian Church Crushed in China” that I was both encouraged and bummed by. The article is about the 50k member church called, Golden Lamp.  It describes how 400 police officers and “hired thugs” went into a dozen different locations terrorizing, stealing computers and church funds, abusing and beating members, and imprisoning the pastors.  The article says that this is all based on the communist governments desire to control what’s going there.  You should read the article.

I was bummed for obvious reasons, but mainly for the hearts of those in government.  I was encouraged because I know that trial like this is for the testing and proving of the believers faith (1 Peter 1:6-7).

I thought this could be a great discussion for a small group. Here’s a bit of background:

Read the article, and then talk through 1 Peter 1:6-7.  Make sure your students understand the people Peter is writing to were also under persecution like this.  Nero, then the emperor of Rome, was known for this.  He would put a pole in the ground, strap a Christian to the top of it, and light it on fire – burning the person alive.  He would do this in public.  Also, another possible interesting element to discuss, is that both the apostle Paul as well as Peter are said to be victims of Nero’s persecution.  In fact, some have accounted that Peter was crucified upside down.  Needless to say, the people originally reading this were in a similar situation.

It could be interesting to ask a couple of questions:

If trial is for the testing and proving of our faith, why then do you think we try to avoid it – and do so at all costs?

Circumstances don’t always have to be this bad for it to be deemed a “trial,” so what might trials look like in our lives?

Read 1 Peter 2:13-15.  What do you think submission looks like to the China government?  The church isn’t operating under their control…does this passage mean they ought to be?  Or are we given freedoms in Christ to operate outside of their control of religious activity? (note: if you read the article this question will make sense.)

What do you think submission to our government looks like?  We might not be under persecution like this, but don’t you think this principle still applies?

Anyway, this could be fun to talk through with college students, for sure.

A little survey, brainstorm, networking, get ideas from one another deal here.  Working in college age ministry requires us to have volunteers.  Much of what we do can be – and should be – led by college age people themselves.  But, as you’re likely aware, I’m very big on having older believers invest in college age people.  Thus, we need people.

I have done a variety of things to equip and train these leaders.  My question for you is, are there any resources (books, articles, websites, etc.) you’ve given your adult volunteers to help them be more effective in their ministry to college age people?  If you list some, make sure to briefly comment about how it’s helped them.

Over Thanksgiving you may have connected with some students who came home for the holiday.  If you were able to do so those times could’ve been great…or a bit awkward.  And, maybe you weren’t able to connect.  The time is often short and filled with family traditions…and any time with friends they could fit in during their short stay at home.

But, winter break is usually different.  They’ll have up to a month at home.  And even if they hold a job back at school, they’ll likely have a couple weeks or so.  That to say, connecting with them during this time is more probable.  Plus, most are looking forward to just being at home and doing “nothing.”  About this time of the year they’re overwhelmed by the end of the semester, papers being due, and finals coming up.  But the light at the end of the tunnel is that break at home.

So, this is a great time to connect with them.  But there are some things we need to be aware of and one in particular – potential relational awkwardness.  So, I recently wrote a little article on some things to keep in mind when we’re re-connecting with students over the break.  For that article, click here.

An Amish tradition called Rumspringa is highlighted in this video below.  Intriguing to say the least.  I’ve researched a lot about this in years past and have taught about it in college youth culture courses.

At 16 years old the kids go out and do whatever they want, they experience whatever they desire, and this is encouraged by the parents.  There are some convictions behind this, of course.  The idea behind this is they let the kids “run around” for a while and then at some point ask the kids if they want to join the Amish church.  The hope is that once they’ve tasted the emptiness of that world, they’ll realize the beauty of being distant from it.  They’ve experienced the “English world” now, so they need to decide.

Interestingly,  85-90% decide to commit to the church and negate the pleasures of the “other world.”

This is fascinating.  I’m not saying I totally agree – or disagree – but I’m intrigued.

I guess my question is: is it fair to compare this to the first year of moving away to college?  Now, I’m obviously not saying it’s apple’s to apple’s.  In fact one might be a fruit and the other a vegetable.  But I’m wondering in what ways it does or could compare.  Any thoughts?

I’m currently sitting in a coffee shop at Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana.  Students are studying, talking, and I’m actually overhearing a guy “hit” on a girl.  Pretty funny.

Anyway, I wanted to give an update on a couple things.  First, speaking at George Fox’s Fall Retreat.  I know this picture is a bit blurry, but these are the people I got to know a little over this weekend.  It is a mix of GF staff and students who were leading this trip.  The theme of the weekend was, “Walk with Me” and it had two perspectives.  One was asking other people to walk with me in everyday life – through the ups and downs.  They had some couches and chairs set up during different parts of the day so people can walk up and talk to someone.  The students that sat there waiting for someone simply had the job of listening.  It was a cool concept and seemed to work.  The second perspective to the theme was that God was asking us to walk with Him.  This is the part I concentrated mostly on.  It was a fun time and I hope to be more involved with George Fox over the years.

Secondly, last week I went to a Portland Blazer game…and had these seats.  Amazing.  I know you can’t tell, but that’s Greg Oden and the Blazer’s bench on the left.  We were close.  Pretty fun time of hanging out and hearing them talk on the bench about the game.  Unfortunately they played horrible.  But the seats were great and worth going.

Thirdly, I’m speaking at Grace College all week – to the left is a picture I took this morning before the students arrived.  I’m speaking in three chapels, teaching youth ministry classes, and will be doing a training/Q&A session for church leaders this evening from the area.  Not sure exactly what that is, but apparently there are people coming – so that’s good I guess.  In chapels this week I’m talking about 3 perspectives on life, from 3 different authors in Scripture, using their thoughts in books they wrote.  I think that made sense.  Anyway, today has been good so far, looking forward to dinner with some people tonight.

I’m trying to finish up some chapters in a forthcoming book (The Slow Fade).  Do you want to help?  It’s easy.  If you’re working in college ministry I would love to see your job description!!!  Did the church you’re at give you one?  If you could get it to me in one of the following ways that would be great.  I’m not going to be quoting any one individually, my goal is to see how they all compare to one another in a variety of areas.  Anyway, if you’re up for it, you can get it to me:

• by posting it in the comments section – this might be good for others to see as well
• by sending an email to stacy@colossaechurch.org
• by putting a link to a URL I can check out.

Thanks a ton.

When I was in Cincinnati I was hanging out with my friend Chap Clark.  We were talking about all kinds of things and then the issue of writing for YW Journal, which he is an editor for, came up.  I’ve written some articles for them in the past, but haven’t written anything the last few years.  I just figured they didn’t like me much.  Just kidding.

Anyway, Chap told me I should go by the booth in the exhibit hall and see “Steve.”  So, after a meeting I shot by there to see if “Steve” was around.  He was.  We talked for about 5 minutes and then he asked if he could do an interview.  Totally random, but we did it.  So, I’ve posted the YouTube version below.  You’ll see some interesting shots – like close ups of my nostril and ear hole. Funny.

If you’d like to see the YW page where other interviews are listed click here.

This fall has been filled with conferences. Some experiences have been better than others for me, but I’ve been able to have some really good conversations with dozens of leaders from across the country. There is one thing that seems to come up when I talk to people in ministry – and more often than I’d like.

People thinking they should be doing more than they already are.

Desiring to do more for those we work with certainly isn’t a bad thing. We just need to make sure “more” doesn’t come at the expense of what’s important. People.

Sometimes we think by doing more we’ll have a greater impact on people. That can be true, but often the opposite happens. If we’re not careful “more” actually comes at the expense of people. For instance, we can often think that we need to do more in our programs to be effective. Another video, a better game, a better sermon, etcetera. But the reality is people just need to be invested in, they don’t need more programming. Programs can be helpful, but if putting them together are at the expense of living life with people we can easily lose focus on what’s important.

To me, ministry is simple. Loving God and investing in individual people. We have a horrible tendency to make it more difficult than that. And then our definition of effectiveness gets all messed up…leading us to believe that we need to do more than just investing in individual people.

I want to issue some encouragements to those who feel they need to do more than this. For those possibly discouraged because of a seemingly more effective ministry in town. Or, possibly, to those that don’t have a type A personality and not the most gifted teacher in the world. Here are 4 things that, if you’re already doing in ministry, tell you nothing more needs to be implemented:

1. Simply helping people love God with all of their being
2. Simply helping people biblically navigate the waters they are in personally
3. Simply providing a safe place for people to express thoughts and not be judged
4. Simply helping people learn what it means to live out what they say they believe

Putting together another program – or doing more in the one you already have – might be helpful in accomplishing these things. But maybe it’s not what’s needed. Maybe doing less is best to make sure we’re staying focused on what’s important. People.