The recent changes to the Canada Summer Jobs Grant application seems to have woken the church from it’s perpetual slumber into the closest thing to rage that Canadian Christians are capable of displaying.
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Maybe you’re getting weighed down in the minutia of your ministry. Maybe you’re drowning in a sea of deadlines, scheduling, emails, and meetings. Take some time to come up for air. Go remind yourself why you do what you do.
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There’s a lot of pressure in ministry, especially youth ministry, to be creative. To come up with crazy games, poignant messages, unique programming, cool set designs, big event ideas, and on and on and on. Below are a few tips I've learned along the way for getting ideas, saving them, and trying them out.
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A new year of ministry is about to kick off and I’m raising my expectations. I’ve settled for less lately - from myself, others, and God himself - and I’m seeing the danger in it more clearly now.
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5 warning signs to watch for that I failed to notice in myself.
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There is much anxiety about the state of today’s youth - and honestly, I don’t buy it. I’ve spent a lot of time with teens over the last 15 years and here’s what I’ve come to realize: the kids are alright.
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I’m intrigued by politics and certainly have an opinion on it. I follow the news, read my share of articles, and enjoy a good debate on the issues with my close friends. However, I made a personal decision a couple years back that has proven wise for me - as a pastor, I stay out of politics.
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Ask most pastors why they’ve left a church and they’ll most likely say something along the lines of “it was God’s leading”. While that is ideally the case, the reasons are often a lot simpler than that. Frankly, the reasons are often pretty lame. There are 4 that seem to come most often.
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Sometimes you need to quit. Walk away. Get out.
There is a lot to be said about the benefits of longevity in ministry, I’ve written about it a bit myself. But, there may also come a time when you need to leave. The trick is to know when that time has come. As youth pastors (or just pastors in general) we typically have a very real love for our people and a deep sense of calling to what we are doing. Both of those are great, but they can cause us to miss or ignore otherwise obvious signs that the time has come to move on. There may be plenty more, but these are the 5 Good Reasons to Quit that I've identified.
It can be tempting to hide the issues our ministry has - to just ignore the failings and focus on the good stuff. And there really is a lot of good stuff, too! But, I want to be a better leader next year than I was this year. I want to care for my people better next year than I did this year. I want to run better programming to meet the needs of our congregation and community next year than i did this year. The best way I’ve found to improve in these areas is through evaluation.
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