The Effects of God's Will on His Youth Ministry

After discovering God's will for His people and the church I quickly changed what I was doing. No longer was I trying to entertain teens with games and then sneaking in a quick devotion. I began to incorporate intentional fellowship, encourage meaningful worship, and devotions became sermons focusing on discipleship and evangelism. I also encourage missions work organized and impromptu. When I changed my focus to God's will, everything changed. My brother in faith, Randy, was so right when he advised me; "Do what God says to do."


It takes time and serious prayer applying God's will to youth. It is constantly evolving each and every day. Anyway, the overhead laminate film projector did not seem to matter anymore. It became cool to project the lyrics on a wall with a plastic sheet and play contemporary worship music over the sound system. Instead of sounding like bad karaoke, the youth were singing as to please The Lord. The quick devotions became 20-30 minute sermons. Every week I faithfully pray and seek what God has willed for that weeks sermon.


After several months of the same old routine with 9-12 youth, God began to move. The more I found myself surrendering to His will, the more youth He was drawing in to our youth services. Literally it seemed like overnight that we went from an average attendance of 9-12 to 20-25 teenagers. God was obviously blessing "His" youth ministry in our small town. Most people may think 20-25 teenagers is really not that impressive. Maybe it is not for most towns, but for our town it is. What impresses me the most is the number of youth who continue to come every Wednesday night and worship the Lord in a way that is not the norm for today's youth ministry.


Since May of 2009, God has taken the network of 12 students that I had been blessed to minister to and multiplied it now to an average attendance of 40-50. Through it all, God has truly blessed me by allowing me to network and build relationships with nearly 100 teenagers in our area.


Now forget about the 12, 40, 50, and 100. My real point is not numbers, numbers mean absolutely nothing if all a ministry does is entertain teenagers. What I really want to draw attention to is the faithfulness of the youth to worship in the way God has called us to worship Him. I find it fascinating how God reaches youth and keeps their attention so unconventionally compared to what we think is needed. I have seen teenagers grow spiritually in ways I never imagined. I have also seen students turn from sinful lifestyles that most people would have written off as a lost cause.


When we are within God's will and His plan, He moves. We should never think that our plan is greater than His. We simply do not have in mind the things of God nor could we ever dictate or plan His heart's desire. We simply must come before Him in obedience to His will and submit. We must seek His desire and earnestly serve in such a way as to please Him alone if we are to truly be an ambassador for Christ.

I want to encourage you to apply God's will to your daily life. You will discover blessings beyond measure. I assure you, there is no greater place than to be in the midst of The LORDS will. What I shared in my last post as God's will is this; repentance, following Him, fellowship, worship, discipleship, evangelism, and missions. I certainly have not arrived so to speak and neither has the youth group I have been blessed to minister to. My life and His ministry are constantly and continually evolving and hopefully will continue to do so until The Lord brings me home! I never want to come to the place where I think "I have arrived."


The picture is the most recent I have of the Flippin FBC YOUTH Group! A least some of them from from 2012.


Isaiah 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. 9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.


May my life be the proof and evidence of Christ's love!

The Search for the Purposes of Church

During the time I agreed to lead our Wednesday night youth and the day I surrendered to the ministry, I was attempting to mimic other youth pastors and their methods of ministry.  I really had no budget to work with and not much money of my own to invest.  What I did have I spent on trying to make our Wednesday night youth appealing to our local students.  Honestly, that was an epic failure.    God had called me into His ministry not my ministry or the ministry of someone else.  My failure was trying to fulfill and mimic what others were already doing.  I was not seeking what God wanted to be done. 

It is funny how we have it in our heads that God needs all the fancy gadgets and latest technology to reach the lost.  The irony was in what I did have.  The digital projector was broken, I had no laptop, and the youth building was and still is the old church with no pews.  We did have an old pool table, a ping pong table and one basketball goal.  The floors were and still are bare.  The walls are just a plain white with grungy smudges everywhere.   No fancy lights, no fancy décor, no band, and no cool place to just hang out. What we had and still have is the blah boring bare minimum, a scratchy sound system, and an old school plastic sheet projector.  Most youth would walk in and think “really, are you for real!” and walk out.  In spite of all this, we are blessed beyond measure, we really are.  Today we do have a working computer projector and a somewhat working laptop. 

After several weeks of leading the youth, reality set in.  God wanted something different than what I was attempting to create and mimic.  If He really wanted what I was trying to do He would have provided for those needs.  So the big question was; “What was it that God had planned?”

The first night I led youth, there was 9 students in attendance.   Several weeks later there were 12-15.  Obviously something was wrong.  Please do not be mistaken, it’s was not about how many kids you can draw in and entertain.  It is about making an impact in the life of a student for Christ.  If you have a hundred or even a thousand and not one life is reached for Christ, then it is all in vain.  If you only have one and that one life is changed for Christ, then it is all worth every effort you have made. 

One fact I knew for sure was; we had more than one in our community that needed to meet the Lord.  I also realized that what I was doing really wasn’t what The Lord wanted.  The kids I was ministering to were the kids of parents who had been attending our church for years.  They all grew up in the church and they were expected to be a part of the youth group.  Not that this was a bad thing, because it was not.  The problem was our youth ministry was bound by the walls and membership of our church.  God never intended it to be that way. 

I began to pray faithfully, “Lord, what is it that our youth need? How do you want me to lead and minister?”  As I became more faithful in praying and more in tune to listening to God’s voice instead of making sure God heard my voice, I began to hear what He desired.  I began to realize that what God wanted was not entertainment it was church.  I began to see what God’s church looked like.  It had no walls or fancy comfortable interiors.  God’s church was the people.  With that in mind, I began to focus on what we did have and not what I thought we should have.  I no longer sought after the images of other youth groups; I sought after the images of Christ’s church and its purpose.

God began to put things on my heart and my mind of what He wanted.  It seemed like every time I asked He would respond “Church!”  As I would read His word and pray, I began to realize what Church was suppose to look like and what its purposes were.  When we make church what we want it to be and not what God has called it to be it may look attractive and nice on the outside, but in the inside, it is dead.  In my next post I will share what God showed me, and how He confirmed the purposes of His church. 

 

The picture is of a church in Romania.  the inside was absolutely gorgeous.  The outside was surrounded by homeless people with great need. There is something wrong with that. 

Matthew 23:27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.

May my life be the proof and evidence of Christ’s love!

I Am Not, But The Great I AM Is

Right after I started leading our churches youth group, we had a youth mission trip. The week of July 4, 2009, I was the new leader for the youth MFUGE trip to Mobile Alabama. MFUGE is comparable to a mission trip, church camp, and revival on steroids. Lifeway ministry organizes these particular events. It was during this week, I debated with God whether or not He could use me.

I had honestly been struggling with the temporary youth leadership role I had been asked to fill. I had no idea how long it was going to take to find a new youth pastor. My struggle was the fact that I was still rather shy, quiet, timid, and fearful. During this week, God began to speak to me in a way I had never heard or experienced before. Repeatedly The LORD was saying "Bill I want you to lead the youth, I want to use you to reach them for Me. I am going to use you to do this. You will teach them to worship and love Me. You will show them who my son is. Your life and leadership will become the proof and evidence of who I am, through you they will come to know me." My immediate response was something like this "God, I am not able, I am not biblically wise, I am not able to speak, I am not smart enough, I am not strong enough, I am not courageous enough, I am not secure enough, I am not popular enough, my life is not stable enough, I am not……" Throughout this week and the weeks that followed, this was the context to the debate God and I was having.

The main theme for that years MFUGE was having faith, faith to believe, faith to take a stand, faith to move forward, faith to do what God has called you to do. The story focused on Moses and the burning bush. Moses was drawn to what seemed impossible, a burring bush that was not being consumed. My life was a burring bush because of the things I had faced and dealt with in the past, my personality, lack of confidence, and even more so our battle with Huntington's disease. Just like the burning bush that was not being consumed or destroyed by fire, neither was my life. By all standards, my life and family should have been a train wreck so to speak.

Just like me, Moses had one excuse after another as to why he could not do what God had called him to do. God's response to Moses’ doubt was "I AM." For several months, I argued with God. " I am not able, I am not biblically wise enough, I am not able to speak well, I am not smart enough, I am not strong enough, I am not courageous enough, I am not secure enough, I am not popular enough, my life is not stable enough, I am not……blah blah blah…" God's response to every excuse I had was "I AM."

Looking back, my faith and trust in the Lord was weak and pitiful. Who was I to say “No” to God? Of course, I cannot do the things of God, but He can and He will in and through anyone who is willing to surrender and say “Yes.” After all, He is the great I AM.

Are you like Moses and I, do you doubt what God can do in and through you? I assure I was one of the worst doubters, but now I am one of the most assured believers. God is the “I AM.” He is the one who gives us the strength and courage to do what He has called us to do. He has never called anyone to be qualified first. As a matter of fact, no one is qualified enough in self to adequately represent God. God however is adequate enough to qualify those He has called. All you have to do is say “Yes!”

It is in this story and the next couple of stories that I began to discover God’s will and purpose for the church.  The picture is the group of youth we took to MFUGE, Mobile Alabama 2009.

Exodus 3:14 ,God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.

May my life be the proof and evidence of Christ’s love!