It's just my junk

We all have junk in our heads. This is mine.

Archive for the month “March, 2015”

04 Mar 2015

Is it about you or your students?

I was watching the NBC Show “The Voice” with my daughter (#3) this week and I was reminded of a couple of things from previous years of viewing. The Voice is a show where hopeful singers from various musical slant stand on a stage and sing for four famous in the industry coaches while their backs are turned. While I am a fan of the under dog and seeing people make their dreams come true. The cool factor is the finalist usually come away with a record deal. Okay, back to the show.

While watching the show, the singers were giving their all and we were guessing if they would get a chair to turn or if they would get none. I began to see a pattern within the coaches.

It was as if they were trying to get attention from each other or the audience at times with disregard for the singer trying to make it big. I do admit when no chairs turn they are very sympathetic so that is nice. But when they carry on about themselves in a marketing stance, it rubbed me wrong, which made me think of my ministry.

The question I came up with is….  Are you building into people for your own gain or for their gain? God can grow them with both mindsets but one produces fruit much faster than the other.

So, let me ask you, Are you investing in people for your gain or theirs? It can’t be both.

If you are investing in them for their gain, awesome.. thank you. But if you are doing it for your gain, I will ask you to adjust,

Why adjust? simply because they will develop life long habits from you.. good or bad they are your disciple (student) and you are their guide. What they see you modeling they will also become and model. This is a cycle that will only end when a leader steps form the model and realizes the way he or she is learning is not the best most productive way.

I know at times I have fallen into a need for identity through who I am connected with but it isn’t fair for those who look to you as their leader and guide into the world of ministry or life for that matter.

Please join me regularly push the hold or pause button and do a quick evaluation of your leading…. a couple of question to prompt you:

1. Am I selfishly investing in this person to help me?
2. Am I helping them be all they can be?
3. How am I growing them to be the best person they can be?
4. Do I come away from meeting or teaching or investing in them with regret?

Good Luck in walking beside future leaders helping them be all they can be.
You Rock for sure.

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02 Mar 2015

Here comes the Boom

There was a movie out in 2012 that was about a teacher (Kevin James) needed to raise funds for their school, so he decided to do MMA (mixed martial arts)…. You will have to watch the movie to learn more.

It got me thinking, yeah I think a lot sometimes, about how we raise funds in Youth Ministry.
Most of the Youth Ministries… not all but most have a scheduled budget amount.
If you are from a bigger church, you submit an annual budget for your ministry, that then goes to the finance team who puts together the church budget and it is voted on etc.

The Following experiences have been in my history:

1. Get a budgeted amount, but the funds aren’t sufficient to fund it.

2. Get no budget, you raise or spend what you have…

3. Get a budget and over spend

4. Get a budget and use it to the penny…

I am not sure what season you find yourself in but we experience them all.
I wanted to address the well, we don’t have enough money to do what God is calling us to do.

We all have a sensitivity for sure to needing more money. I will share a couple ideas:
1. Ask congregation to give from the stage.. not that this is realistic but it is an idea.2. Find a couple of people who are sensitive to your ministry that will give
3. Find someone who is sensitive to your need.. maybe a band dude will buy you a drum kit etc.
4. Seek out a local business that will let you serve them and they will give you tip money>> for example
We live in a town that has a local pizza place. We approached them, well actually a former student who is a manager their asked me, to see if we could do a service project with them. They said, yes pick out a monthly day of the week, to come in with a designated amount of people to clean tables, pick up dishes and clean them. We benefit in three ways… money, serving the community and community awareness.
5. Charge a bit more for events that will help cover expenses, fuel, leaders, t-shirts etc.

I am sure the list could go on and on but the key is realizing you have far more access to funds than a church budget if you do your home work and get some creativeness in generating funds.. No one likes a whiner….

Good luck with your ministry and fund raising.

Posted in time for action, youth ministry leadership and tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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