Hello Mr. Sun

The girls just had to take advantage of the sunshine while it lasted.

Youth Ministry Lessons from Mary Poppins

Being a dad of young children means that many of the movies I watch are ones that I normally would not choose. One such movie that both Emily and Callie just love is Mary Poppins. After watching this more times than I want to count, I couldn't help but think of how similar the storyline is to where we are in youth ministry today.

- The father wants a nanny that will mold his young breed so he can focus on working at the bank. This made him completely clueless about what was really going on in their world. Over the years, I believe we have conditioned our parents to have similar feelings. Let's just dump our kids off at church and they can disciple them because I'm too busy. From the very beginning God gave the responsibility for discipleship to happen in the home.

- Even though the children wanted someone who looked nice, didn't smell bad, and played fun games, they like the "clean up the nursery" game once they saw how it worked. I truly believe that students want the discipline required for following Christ but they have never had it and don't really even know what it looks like. We have become too concerned that it won't be fun enough to keep their attention that we have gone overboard with being entertaining and relevant.

- Mary Poppins is very similar to "some" youth pastors in several ways. She was a rebel nanny who wouldn't give references, did things her own way, and stood up to her boss. She also only promised to stay until the winds changed. How many youth guys have to leave because they have run out of tricks?

- At the very end when the father has lost his job, he goes and repairs their kite. All four of the family go to the park to fly it and Mary Poppins' cane says to her that it was rude of the children to not tell her goodbye. Her cane says that they would rather be with their father than with her. Mary says that is how it should be. While they were sad when she left, their father and mother were now there for them. It should be a sad time with a youth pastor leaves, but because mom and dad are the primary disciple-maker, everything is still in place and the whole world doesn't stop until a new guy can be hired.

These are just a few similarities we can take away from this classic movie. It is just sad that we have come so far in youth ministry and yet such a long way to go. In most youth ministries across America, parents have been taken out of the equation when it comes to discipleship and the church. If we are going to see our youth ministries become healthier, I believe we must find ways to involve parents in the discipleship of their children.

Is Jesus Just Our Free Ticket To Heaven?

This past Saturday I was finally able to see Casting Crowns live in concert. I have been a fan of theirs for years, but it just hadn't worked out for me to go see them yet. It was looking like I wasn't going to be able see them again this time around even though they were going to be only fifteen minutes from my house. Then, I got a phone call from my friend John asking if I wanted to go to the concert for free! I didn't even have to think twice. The only catch was I had to help handout information for a local Christian radio station as people walked through the doors. I may not be good at a lot of things in life, but even I can give out business cards.

After I told John I would go and help promote the radio station, I had a second thought. While I knew of the station, I had really only listened to it a handful of times. It wasn't that I didn't like this station, it's just that I prefer another Christian station when I actually get to pick what I am listening too. Most of the time our van and home are filled with music my two little girls will enjoy more. Don't get me wrong, I think VBS music is great and all, but that usually isn't my first choice.

Right before they were going to open the doors to start seating people, I was told where to stand and given business cards to handout. As I stood there looking at the line forming outside of the church, I got a little worried. What if someone actually asked me a question about the station? I only knew the name of one of the DJs and I could probably guess at their website address. I glanced at the business card to cram any last-minute information into my head as possible. I ended up handing out well over a hundred cards and only had to answer one minor question.

As we were finishing up, they had me go help John because he still had people coming through his door. As I was walking up to help John, I could hear him aggressively go after anyone who would take a card. As he gave out his cards, he would also say that this was the best Christian radio station in the world. He said that almost every time and we all knew he meant it. For John, he knew several of the people who worked there and had even helped them at other events. This was clearly John's favorite radio station and he was proud to promote it.

During the first of the concert, I couldn't help but think how different my approach was from John's. While I wanted to give everyone a card, I really didn't have the same passion as John. I began to wonder if that is why so many Christians are pretty lousy at evangelism? I'll admit that I didn't really go to help promote the radio station; I went to hear Casting Crowns. And I bet John would have gone just to promote the station even if he didn't get to hear the concert.

How many people only view Jesus as their free ticket to heaven like my free ticket to the concert? Since they really don't know Jesus, they can't answer questions about Him or really even enthusiastically share Him with their friends and family. When Jesus is JUST our ticket to heaven, we are missing the point. There will be no passion or excitement when we are placed expected to help with evangelism. However, the more we know Jesus, the more we will want to tell others about Him because we know they must have what we have. I got to see my concert for free and I helped promote a radio station without causing any harm. But if I just try and fake my way through evangelism, people's souls are at stake. Jesus is NOT just our free ticket to heaven.

She Loves To Read

Today Emily had to read a few three-letter words as she arrived at school. She knew all of them and received this for a reward.