Our Mission, Should We Choose to Accept It

The leaders of our Youth and Family Ministry at the Winchester Church of Christ met Sunday night and talked about our new mission statement. Without further ado, here it is:

"Partnering with families to prepare young people for a lifetime of loving God, loving others, and following Jesus."

Here are some thoughts that accompany the first three parts of this mission statement:

"Partnering With Families." We believe that parents are the most important figures in a young person's life for developing lasting faith. Is that belief reflected in what we do in our ministry? Are we ministering and equipping our families and not just our young people?

"Preparing Young People." Here's something we must also keep in mind: some of our young people will be involved without the support of their parents. Are we doing a good job of preparing them as well?

"For a Lifetime." How are we helping young people successfully transition from high school into the next stage of life? Are we doing everything we can to increase the likelihood that our young people will stay faithful after graduation and for the rest of their lives?

5 Years In...

Chuck Morris, who teaches youth ministry courses at Freed-Hardeman, recently asked me what I would tell his students as someone who's been at this for nearly five years. These are the two things that immediately came to my mind:

1. Change Takes Time. 

Idealism and optimism are good, but the reality for me has been this: significant change in ministry--in thinking, in attitudes, in programming, in whatever--takes time.

2. Focus on Principles Instead of Specific Models.

Here's an example of a principle: young people need meaningful relationships with faithful adults to increase the likelihood that they will remain faithful. Now there is a plethora of specific models out there to put this principle into action. I spent too much time trying to force-fit ready-made models onto our youth ministry instead of allowing our context to determine how the principle would best fit.

The Story

We began a new series last night called "The Story." Our students will (hopefully) be reading through the books of Luke and Acts over the next 8 weeks. The text we're using comes from a campaign called Community Bible Experience by the publishing house Biblica. It's the NIV version, but with chapter and verse numbers removed from the text to improve readability. (I am grateful to CBE for sending me the text as a free sample after I attended the National Youth Workers Convention! I am also thankful for my wife, Lauren, who bound all the booklets for our students!)

The people over at Community Bible Experience share three problems with the way we read the Bible: