I love my in-laws. In fact, we have a great relationship, and I’ve enjoyed not only marrying their beautiful daughter, but becoming a part of their family.

But every family has it’s quirks, and one of the Jones quirks is their toaster. It always makes me smile.

Toast is the most popular breakfast item in the Jones household, and they have one of those long toasters that holds four slices of bread at a time. The trick is getting it toasted just right.

Since time began, every morning after the toast pops up, Mom or Dad press the level down again because it’s never quite finished the first time. Then usually mid way through the 2nd cycle, they hit the cancel button and the toast comes out just right.

Why not just change the settings on the toaster to make it toast more the first time? Well, the toaster fits neatly in the corner by the stove, and in that position you never see the dial because it’s pressed up against the wall.

For a while they even forgot that dial existed, and when I discovered it I was forbidden to touch it. That’s because the dial is set to the lowest possible setting. The whole family has an ingrained habit of toasting everything twice. If anybody changes that dial and forgets to set it back, tomorrow morning the toast is going to get burned.

So when you talk to my wife about toasters, she thinks about her family’s toaster that she grew up with. In the same way, when she began to learn about her heavenly Father, she thought about her own father (fortunately she had a great example).

My point is simply this: Every family has it’s quirks. Do you know your students’ families? Have you taken the time to try to learn about their past?

In youth ministry, so much of our students’ perception of God is put through the “filter” of what they learn at home, whether good or bad. If we don’t take the time to learn what “filters” they see the world through, we may not know what they need so that the seed of God’s Word falls on good soil in their lives.

Take time to ask questions about your students’ family and past, and then listen. It’s an easy task, yet one with great rewards.

“But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” Matthew 13:23

I believe it was John Maxwell who first coined the phrase “leadership cup.” (This is the same John Maxwell that was arrested for bringing a handgun through security at an airport. Don’t believe me? Google it. I dare you. Funny story. It’s true, and it was an accident.)

A person’s leadership cup is their capacity to lead others. Some people have a huge leadership cup. John Maxwell has sold over 13 million books and trained 2 million leaders worldwide. His leadership cup is massive (although we all make mistakes now and then). Other people have leadership cups of various sizes. How big is yours?

The great thing about your leadership cup is that you can grow and make it bigger. Some people are born with big leadership cups and a natural ability to lead others. But if that’s not you, most of the skills and traits of a good leader can still be learned, and that’s good news for all of us. That means we can always grow our potential.

Man do I love youth ministry. (Did I mention I’m bad at transitions?) I love fighting for students, blessing them, serving them, walking with them, and showing them what it means to know Christ’s love and walk with Him.

I love getting together with youth pastors because we have so much in common, even if we’ve never met. Nothing needs to be said: We’d give it all for students.

And I love youth ministry because, unfortunately, we are sometimes the last line of defense for students. If there is nobody else praying for the students in our communities, we won’t give up. We’ll keep praying, keep loving, and keep serving, in Jesus’ name.

What’s that got to do with your leadership cup? One of the hardest parts about being a youth pastor is balancing your passion for the “one” and for the “multitudes.” Jesus said He would leave the 99 for one lost sheep (Matt 18:12). Another time, when crowds of followers were begging him to say, He told them He must continue on to preach the good news to the other towns too (Luke 4:43).

As disciples of Christ and student leaders, we often have to make similar hard choices: How much time do I devote to individuals, and how much time do I devote to the “multitudes”?

You can grow your leadership cup and reach more students. As a youth pastor, I understand that you are giving everything you have to reach and disciple the students you have today. But you also have a heart to impact the hundreds and even thousands of students in your town that still don’t know the Lord. God’s heart also yearns for both those in your group and those that don’t yet know Him. The good news is that you can grow your leadership cup to make an even greater impact in the future.

Be encouraged. Through prayer, learning, and practice, you can grow your leadership cup—and help grow the leadership cup of your leaders—to reach more students tomorrow. And as we grow closer to Him, we will better understand and fulfill God’s heart, “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Training Event in Chicago
On Saturday, January 30th, 2010, Called to Youth Ministry is hosting a powerful training event for youth pastors and youth leaders in northwest Chicagoland. This will be a great chance for youth pastors to grow their leadership cup.

After the event, each youth pastor will receive two freebies which we pray will be a huge blessing for you and your students: 1) A free one-on-one youth ministry consultation with a youth ministry coach to discuss the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of your youth ministry, and 2) two months of additional youth ministry training and coaching.

In addition, several local area youth pastor network leaders will be at the event. If you have not yet plugged into a network, this is your chance.

For info and to register online, visit www.calledtoyouthministry.com/chicago.

I hope you can join us! If you have any questions, feel free to call or email me.

By God’s Grace,
Nathaniel
440-220-5626
nathaniel@calledtoyouthministry.com

Wow. Laminin. So amazing!

We will never fully grasp the endless aspects of God. And He gives us so much to marvel at in His creation. Here’s just one more reason to praise Him this Christmas season!

(If you can’t see the video below, click here.)

Not bad!

(If the video does not appear below, click here.)

And here’s how they did it.

It’s December already, and youth pastors are thinking about New Year’s resolutions. What’s on your list?

• Learn proven techniques to grow your leadership team
• Create and implement a strategic plan for your youth group
• Learn to be more effective and reach more students

We’re hosting a youth ministry training event January 30th where you can learn all these things and much more.

Learn how to be a more effective youth pastor, better disciple your students, and reach more teens in 2010!

Register before Christmas and also receive 10 helpful planning tools to equip your youth ministry. Includes a Parental Release Form, Leadership Application, Planning Calendar, Project Management Form and more.

Learn more: http://www.calledtoyouthministry.com/chicago

Awesome video!

Great idea if you’re looking for something your students can do this Christmas. If any youth groups actually give this a try, PLEASE post a comment and let us know how it goes!

(If you can’t see the video below, click here.)

Matt Slippy got in touch with me last week about an interesting survey he is conducting for his D.Min.

Below is some information. If you would take a few minutes to participate in the survey, that would be a huge blessing. Please also share it with others via Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Orthodoxy Vs Orthopraxy

Which is more important, what we believe or what we do in youth ministry? It would be easy to debate and discuss this Q (which we will certainly do), but when it comes down to choosing only one of two options on a given weekend for our teens to participate in, what option would we choose?  For instance, would I take my students to serve at a homeless shelter or take them to a worldview conference? I am conducting an online research project to see which direction youth pastors, parents of teens, and youth ministry students in colleges and seminaries lean on this important Q. I am hoping to survey at least 1000 people in each group. With your help, I believe this is possible.

Goto: www.youthministrysurvey.com There is a link for youth pastors, a link for parents, and a link for youth ministry majors. Once youth pastors take the survey, please give the link to parents of teens in your ministry and ask them to take the survey for parents.

Also, I need your help in getting the word out about  www.youthministrysurvey.com to other youth pastors within your network of relationships, via online communities, denominational groups, and your local networks.

Oh yeah!

I pity the foo’ who don’t love his mama right.

I read yesterday about Adam Lambert’s performance at the AMA’s. Apparently it was very sexually provocative and ended with him kissing another male on stage. And of course there is a controversy over whether he went too far.

I guess I’m not surprised. It used to shock me every time somebody pushed the line morally on TV or in the movies. I would be amazed at how far this “Christian nation” has fallen. But I’m just not surprised anymore.

Romans 1 discribes what happens when a people turn their back against God.

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened… Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” (Romans 1:21, 24-25)

Sadly, very sadly, that is a perfect description of what is happening in our culture today. More and more, people are openly turning their backs on the Creator God and worshiping created things. We are just seeing the signs of this over and over as man’s sinful desires are openly displayed on the airwaves for all to see.

My heart is grieved. It saddens me to see people living so far from the loving truth of the Gospel. Even though Christ’s arms are open wide, so many willfully turn their back on Him.

This also lights a fire under me. I don’t just want to protect the students in my life from this trash. I want to show them what it really is–trash–and help them see that there is so much more in knowing God that the world can never compete with!

And that starts with me, my personal walk with God, my lifestyle that I lead others with, and the prayers I am praying for students.

So no, I’m not surprised. I do, however, find myself praying even more for this generation.

Hi Friends,

I wanted you to be some of the first to know about the new resource library we just launched on the Called to Youth Ministry website.

Check it out! www.calledtoyouthministry.com/resources

Our prayer is that these resources will be one more tool in your toolbelt as we work together to disciple students.

Also, please join the discussion! What makes this library unique is that anybody can contribute resources. Several people have already contributed some great resources, and I hope you will join them.

To contribute your resource, just go here to log in and get started: www.calledtoyouthministry.com/contribute

This is just the beginning. There are a lot of improvements and upgrades we are planning to make this library even more helpful, so stay tuned.

God bless, and see you soon at the new resource library!