First Third Conversations

We'd love for you to share THIS video with your congregational leadership. Yep, the senior pastor, but even better the entire church council.

We just read a pastor's thread today that talked about worship attendance in congregations being flat or down, while giving and the work of ministries are up. Participatory culture.

Use some of these questions to open the discussion after viewing the video:

• What evidence do you see of the cultural shifts that Ryan Bolger is talking about in our community? …

The Exemplary Youth Ministry Study results indicate that churches seeking to develop an effective formation focus make three distinctive shifts.

SHIFT I

They emphasize personal and community transformation understanding that, though programs are a necessary dimension of congregational life, they are a means toward an end and not the end itself. Christian formation is about turning believers into disciples of Jesus Christ, so that we are formed in Christ, both personally and as a community. …

Recently, I was asked, “If you were to go back and do youth ministry again, how would what you know now change what you would do?” I had quite a few things on my list, (hindsight is amazing!) and here are two of them that are directly related to the Exemplary Youth Ministry study results.

So, if I were leading youth ministry again I would…

• Act theologically before programmatically. I often looked for the next “packaged program” to help me deliver the “message.”  …

For years I have struggled to move beyond the “if we build it they will come” programmatic formula for youth ministry.

In my quest for fidelity to the great commission I’ve asked if counting heads in our programs is not bearing fruit (as both my experience and studies like Christian Smith’s Soul Searching tell us)…then what do I aim at to judge the fidelity we seek?

Kneeling in prayer is always the best first step in responding to that question. After I did …

We started our Life Teams by recruiting current & former confirmation, mission trip, and Sunday School teachers to agree to join the Life Team that already exists (i.e., parents,  godparents, grandparents, confirmation mentors, etc.) in a youth’s life as intentional cheerleader in the faith on behalf of the congregation.

We centered our ministry around these informal relationships that would begin by praying for youth, being their facebook friend, going to their school events, …

I thought I was just going to dinner with my wife and kids at the Chili’s by my house one night. As the hostess seated us, we walked past a table, and there sat an adult and a student from our church — one of our Life Teams. There they were, just having dinner, catching up, getting to know each other even better, doing life together. I can’t tell you what an exciting moment that was for me. It made every ministry struggle that I’ve had around the shift from group to …

Moving into a youth ministry marked by mature faith markers is slow work sometimes. 

But living in Jesus' promise in Matthew 28 to be with us always to the end of the age strengthens us for the upward call of discipleship and evangelism that comes with the promise.

For me the picture below is one of those God sightings.

Sitting around the tables are teens, their parents, and their Life Team members (remember Life Team = Life in Christ) discussing the testimony of their own relationship …

I was talking to a friend this week who wondered if all the hype about Exemplary Youth Ministry wasn't just that.

He was not discounting all the good stuff we’ve been blogging about but he did wonder if we were just moving on to the next new thing, the latest fad, the buzz in youth ministry these days. He wondered if we remembered that discipleship based on faith markers or what the Bible calls the fruit of the Spirit has already been around for a long time. He’s got a good point. …

In Disconnected: Parenting Teens in a MySpace World, Chap and Dee Clark take on a popular cultural myth that, sadly, most of us in youth ministry buy hook, line, and sinker: simply, that teenage youth do not want to spend time with their parents.

We often run into the smokescreen when recruitment for small groups comes around. We think, "I bet Jimmy or Janie’s mom/dad would be a great small group leader." 

But, after planting the seed, we soon get the parent’s somewhat dejected …

In September 2010, Luther Seminary's Center for First Third Ministry, hosted a First Third Dialogue on the topic of Children of Divorce.

This conference was for those on the front-lines of ministry with children and youth who know the realities of divorce. Participants shared their own powerful experiences of divorce and heard from experts in the field about the impact of divorce on youth and young adults particularly in regards to sociology and faith.

The goal was to provide space to share stories …