I've just written a paper that is going to go on the Youth Surge website.
I hope that you know that there's a Youth Surge website.
It's called youthsurge.com.au.
I have a website in America called effectiveyouthministry.com.
It's not effectiveym.com.
Be careful.
They're the speed water into a bucket guys and smack each other with all the newspaper.
Effectiveyouthministry.com, where I every week just post youth ministry thoughts.
They're designed for the leadership team to download, read, and discuss.
And there's going to be a long paper.
I'm giving it in Melbourne at this conference on, you know,
do we think pragmatically in youth ministry or do we think theologically?
And so you've got to really think through that because the Americans are pragmatists.
The Americans say, how do we get kids in the door?
That's what they think.
That's not a theological way to think.
It's not an Australian way to think.
We want to think, what does God want us to do?
That's way more important.
So let's think theologically.
Let's think with our Bibles open.
Now, if this was a 40-hour class, we'd spend a whole bunch of time in the Bible.
And so, unfortunately, I've got to rush through some really good God stuff,
which is frustrating for all of us.
But here is a key passage.
To me, this is a central passage in thinking through youth ministry.
It's well known.
1 Corinthians 3.
And God says here, Paul says here,
By the grace God gives me,
I laid a foundation as an expert building in somebody else's building.
Paul goes to Corinth.
He does evangelism.
People become Christians and he leaves.
So he was the expert builder.
And he built this church.
And he says,
But each one should be careful how he builds.
For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
So it's all about Jesus.
That's why we're doing it.
You're preaching Jesus, teaching Jesus,
helping people to love Jesus,
helping people to love each other because of Jesus.
The whole thing is about Jesus.
If any man builds on this foundation,
he's in gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, and straw.
His work will be shown for what it is
because the day will bring it to light.
You're building a house.
Paul says you've got two piles.
Gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, and straw.
Now be clear on this.
In that culture,
you are not going to build a house with gold, silver, costly stones.
It's absurd.
You're going to build a house with wood, hay, or straw.
Like today.
And so Paul says be careful
because there's some really obvious stuff to build with
and it's the wrong stuff.
There's other stuff to build
that you may not even occur to you to build with.
But that's what you're going to build with
because you're actually building a temple.
And you don't build a temple with just straw.
You build a temple with gold.
And so he says,
if anything builds on this foundation with these things,
his work will be shown.
The day will bring it to light.
That's the day of judgment.
It will be revealed with fire.
And the fire will test the quality of each man's work.
So God is going to send the judgment fires on our youth ministries.
So I was with these two awesome ladies for six years at Oakhurst.
Just a tremendous blessing in my life.
I learned so much about youth ministry at Oakhurst.
It was the most fruitful time in my life
for thinking and writing and strategizing
for all sorts of great reasons.
And I'm obviously a lot older than them.
And I'm going to die.
I'm going to go to heaven.
And I think what this passage is saying
is that in some weird way,
God is going to bring my youth group to heaven.
And in my judgment,
I'm going to be surrounded by these youth group kids.
Lonnie's going to be there.
Siara's going to be there.
I don't know how it's going to work.
It's kind of weird.
But suddenly God is going to test them.
And if they stand, I stand.
If they are burned up, I suffer loss.
Verse 15.
He's going to test the quality of each man's work.
If what he's built survives, he receives reward.
If it's burned up, he will suffer loss.
He himself will be saved,
but only as one escaping through the flames.
I'm going to go to heaven no matter what
because I trust in Jesus.
Jesus has taken my sins.
But if I've run this youth group called, you know,
Spew Squad,
and we've just covered ourselves with marshmallows
every week,
and we've done weird things with toothpicks.
By the way, if it involves a toothpick,
you don't do it in youth ministry.
It's a rule.
Eggs, shaving cream, toothpicks at all costs.
We try to toothpick thing in youth group.
Even though we've been in youth ministry 30 years,
just a few months ago, it was dreadful.
And that was the same night we tried memory verse tennis,
where you had to hit and say the memory verse.
We thought it was such a good idea.
You know when it's death from the minute the activity starts?
And we're like, oh, this is awful.
So even in 30 years, we still get it wrong.
Anyway, I'll still be saved,
but only there's one escaping.
Now this passage, man,
it revolves on those nine words.
Two, four, six, eight, nine.
Be careful.
When you buy a youth ministry book,
be careful.
When you read my stuff,
be careful.
When you put a program together,
be careful.
Because you are building on Jesus,
you're building God's temple.
Are you using gold?
So here's one simple barometer for your youth group.
Something I've learned in a long time.
Does your youth group pray?
If your youth group prays,
that's a really good barometer for your youth ministry.
If I come to your youth group,
and you open with prayer,
and there's a prayer time involved,
and when the leader says,
hey guys, we're going to pray,
what can we pray for?
And kids say,
could we pray for whatever?
That is a real sign of health.
And that says to me
that there's a real serious building with gold here.
When you say to your youth group,
okay, grab your Bibles.
So I was at the youth group here last night,
and one of the leaders who's here said,
okay, everybody get a Bible.
What did the kids do?
They all went and got a Bible.
Okay, we're going to turn to Mark 14.
They open up to Mark 14.
That is a real sign of gold
being woven and built,
and this program is just,
oh, I think, fantastic.
That's a healthy barometer.
When do the kids groan?
Oh, that's a real indicator
that something's,
okay, we're going to play a game now
if they go, oh,
they're saying something.
Or if you say, hey,
we're going to have a prayer time now
and if the kids go, oh,
we want to keep playing the game,
that's a real sign.
So Paul says, build with gold.
Build with gold.
Now here's another one.
This to me is just a fantastic passage.
You know it.
It's a real famous passage.
It's at the end of Acts 2.
Luke, the historian,
gives us kind of a summary passage.
He does it a few times
in the book of Acts.
And he says,
just to sum up this wacko,
amazing, fantastic time
in the early church
where there was Pentecost
and all this outpouring
of the Holy Spirit
and thousands of people
became Christians
and it was just amazing.
He sums it up by saying,
this stuff.
Template.
You are looking at a template
for youth ministry.
Right there.
Notice what they were.
They were devoted
to Bible study.
They were devoted
to fellowship.
The word there is
koinonia or koinonia.
We have cheapened
the word fellowship
in youth ministry.
We have,
what people do culturally
is they take a really good word
and they hijack it.
The word gay,
it's a really good word.
Like it's rich in meaning
but you can't say it anymore.
It's been twisted.
And we've done
a similar thing
with fellowship.
We call things fellowship
that aren't fellowship.
Fellowship is relating
to a person
because of the cross of Christ.
So I am deep friends
with Ciara
not because we just connect
and we like the same stuff
and we just personality-wise
get along.
That's true.
But it's because
of the cross of Christ.
I relate to her
through Jesus
which means
much more deep.
I'm going to care for her.
I'm going to love her.
I'm going to be with her,
mourn when she's mourning,
rejoice when she's rejoicing.
I'm going to admonish her.
I'm going to rebuke her.
I'm going to warn her.
I'm going to study the Bible with her.
It's this awesome term.
That's fellowship.
That's what they were devoted to.
They were devoted to
possibly communion,
possibly meals.
People disagree.
And they were devoted to prayer.
Wow, what a great
youth group image right there.
Everybody looks in and says,
woo, amazing.
And the apostles were doing
great stuff.
People getting healed.
They spent a lot of time together.
Notice that in verse 44.
They had a lot of commonality together.
People kind of wrestle with that.
What does it mean?
Does it mean physical stuff?
Does it mean attitudinally?
Does it mean doctrinally?
I think it means they were thinking
of one mind and spirit.
And they, verse 45,
they shared their stuff.
Generosity.
They met a lot.
Verse 46.
Big group, small group.
Big group in the temple courts,
small group eating together in the homes.
They spent a lot of time praising God.
People looked in and said,
you guys are awesome right here.
And they grew.
Amazing passage.
And so I look at that and I say,
okay, that informs my thinking
in what I want to do.
That is a list of activities.
It's not a list of doctrines.
I must believe that Jesus is X.
That's really good.
I love doctrine.
I'm a doctrine guy.
But this is a list of activities.
So I read that and I think,
okay, if I do that,
I'm building with gold.
And I want to think theologically.
And I want to take those activities
and put them into place in my youth group.
And so how do I do that?
That's the question.
That's where we're going right now.
So I'm going to build my youth program
on three pillars.
So those of you who need a model of youth ministry,
here it comes.
For those of you who know my stuff,
this is a little bit,
I'm taking build, reach, and flow.
If you don't know what I'm talking about,
don't worry about it.
I'm taking build, reach, and flow
and I'm trying to work it a little bit,
make it a little bit thicker.
So build, reach, and flow fits into this.
We're not going to talk much about build, reach, and flow today.
You can read about it.
But I want to build my house on three pillars.
And this is real obvious stuff,
but I'm telling you,
the more I think about it,
I think it changes everything.
Our pillar number one is we're a Christian youth group.
When I came to Australia,
I immediately fell in love with Australia.
It changed my life.
But I didn't get Australia.
I didn't get Australia until I got cricket.
I won't bore you with the story,
but it was during beach mission season.
All my friends had gone.
I was going so insane
that I turned on Channel 9 and watched the cricket.
For an American, that's insanity.
And over the course of five days,
and a lot of phone calls,
what's a Googly, what's a Yorker,
you know,
everything opened up.
I understood so much about Australia
that just led to a whole bunch of thinking
and led to quite a deep desire
for me to become an Australian.
Now I'm trying to wrestle with hockey.
Hockey's a really weird sport.
I don't get it.
Like, you lose your teeth when you play.
It just seems like,
welcome to the hockey team,
you won't be needing those anymore.
LAUGHTER
But our college has a gym.
It's in a balcony.
I'm doing the elliptical
because I'm really not good
at anything else these days.
If it involves a heavy object, forget it.
So I just do this.
Woo!
And I watch the hockey
because every institution in Australia
has to have a hockey rink,
in Canada,
has to have a hockey rink.
So I'm watching hockey.
And then there'll be a hockey match.
And I'm watching the parents.
And I'm watching the coach.
Now I don't know if you know hockey.
I never knew this.
But the team doesn't stay out
for longer than 90 seconds.
So you have four guys race out.
And it's so fast
that they hyperventilate.
And they come back in
and four more guys goes out.
And they have four sets of four guys.
Is that right, Josh?
It's four sets.
Five sets of four guys.
Four sets of five guys.
Who go out.
And I never pick that up.
And so I'm watching it.
Now what I'm watching
is a brutal, sweaty, hard sport.
That's what I'm watching.
And the parents are into it.
And the kids,
they sit in this bench thing
right next to the ice.
And they just lean up.
And whenever something good happens,
they pound on the thing.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
And they're eager to go out.
And I think,
here's a group of young people
who are really committed
to something that's sweaty,
uncomfortable, toothless.
Other parts of your anatomy
will take a puck.
And so it's like,
oh, this is bizarre.
So I think, okay.
I have a nephew.
I take my nephew to hockey.
And I say,
hello, hockey coach.
My nephew's a little bit
interested in hockey.
Hockey coach says,
great.
We'd love to have him.
And I say,
yeah, but I don't think
he wants to afford hockey.
I don't know.
I think he's a bit scared.
Could you play some games
that don't have anything
to do with hockey
to kind of ease them
into hockey?
Like, could you play
Honey, If You Love Me,
Smile?
Even though I know
you guys can't smile.
What would the coach do?
What would the coach do
if I said to him,
can you do things
other than hockey
to be attractive
to the non-hockey player?
It is an unknown concept
to hockey players.
Now, I hope you're tracking
with me because
this is super important.
Think glee club.
Don't think glee club.
Think chess club.
By the way,
you know that glee clubs
sing glees?
That's why they're called
glee clubs.
I never knew that.
Anyway,
it comes from the 1700s.
If I go to a chess club,
which, by the way,
you will never see me
in a chess club.
I'm not knocking
those of you
who are in chess clubs.
I'm just...
But if I go to a chess club,
I'm not going to expect
to do a lot of things
other than play chess,
get thicker glasses
and a calculator
in my front pocket.
Just joking.
I'm going to expect
to play chess.
If a chess club
wants to grow numerically,
what are they going to do?
They're going to play chess.
It wouldn't even occur
to them to say,
let's do non-chess activities
to grow.
Wouldn't even occur to them.
Okay, let's keep going.
So what I want to think through
is we're a Christian group.
That is who we are.
We are unashamedly
marked by our love
for Jesus Christ.
There will be people
who don't want to join us.
There were people
who didn't want
to follow Jesus.
There were people
that Jesus healed
that didn't follow Jesus.
It's mind-boggling.
I can't figure that out.
Why would you not
want to follow Jesus?
Didn't want to.
And so there's going to be
a whole market share
that just quite frankly
doesn't want to be Christian,
doesn't want to follow us.
But we are going to be
a Christian youth group.
And that's going to be
what marks us.
It's going to be
really, really obvious.
That's our first pillar.
And there's a whole bunch
of Bible passages
we can look at,
but we looked at this
2 Peter one
we kind of looked at
a few minutes ago.
That's who we are.
And one really weird turn
the church did
was to follow Willow Creek
and go down
the Seeker Sensitive Mall.
That was such a weird,
for those of you
who are a bit older,
that was such a weird turn
for us to do.
We're going to start
doing non-Christian activities
to attract non-Christians.
Doesn't make any sense.
And Willow Creek,
as many of you know,
has now said,
we don't do that anymore.
And so we need to be saying,
well, we never did.
So we need to be
following along with it.
So that's our first pillar.
Hockey group,
glee club,
choir,
chess group,
Christian youth group.
And in this new
post-millennial world
where kids clearly want
integrity and transparency
and they want to know
what will I get
if I join this?
What is this all about?
Because I'm so busy
and I've got so many
good options
that I need to figure out
whether this is a valid
thing for me to give
my time and my money to.
That's our strength.
It's not our weakness.
Our strength is to say,
we are a place
that will connect you
with the creator
of the universe.
And we are a place
that just knows Jesus
intimately and loves him.
Oh, where did that come from?
Okay, now we have
a second pillar.
And our second pillar
is this.
We do Christian things.
Real obvious.
Why do we do
Christian things?
Because we're
Christian youth group.
That's why.
You come to this club,
to this group,
we are unashamedly Christian.
And we pursue
spiritual disciplines.
Now for those of you
who are kind of
like to think a bit deeper,
I'm really wrestling
with some terms.
And I think where I'm going
in the future
is pillar number one
is ontos.
It's who we are.
Pillar number two
is pneumaticos.
We are spiritual.
And that means
we do spiritual things.
And pillar three,
which we're going to get to
in a minute,
is praxis.
We think about
how we do it
in a culture.
So I'm working on
something right now
that may have that in it.
But we pray.
We send it to the Bible.
We worship.
Now we have a third pillar.
Third pillar is
we do it with youth.
Now that is
the model I think
we need to think
very carefully about.
We do this
with youth.
youth.
They are 15 years old.
They are 12 years old.
They are 20 years old.
However age they are,
what does it mean
to be a Christian group
and do Christian things
with them?
So we're going to think
about culture.
We're going to think about
how do we fit this in
to culture?
What's the best time
to do this
in culture?
What are some activities?
So now we have to
factor in cell phones.
We're going to do
an activity this afternoon
that would really easily
run with cell phones.
I hate cell phones.
I don't have a cell phone.
I never text.
I haven't texted
for years and years and years.
But I could see
building texting
into your youth program.
I can also see
making them
put their phones away
in the youth group program.
But if your culture
would be offended
if you said
okay all cell phones
go into that basket.
We'll give them back to you
at the end of the night.
I could see a culture
where the kids just say
I am not coming
if you do that.
So how do we build in
cell phones?
Well you guys are way ahead
of me because you're
a lot younger than I am.
And you think savvy.
So think through
texting questions
on the board
during a Q&A.
Think through having
a leader texting
to the kids.
Hey are you listening
to Ken?
This is a great point.
Or texting an outline
to the talk.
Or something along
those lines.
Who knows?
There's a whole bunch
of ways where you
could think through
how do we build
our culture.
Julie is going to do
an activity with us
later on where we
built Facebook in
to kind of a starting
youth group.
Julie said to me
one day just about
six weeks ago
hey I think I've got
a good kind of
mixer kind of opening
built on Facebook.
Actually Julie
do you mind saying
it right now?
We'll look at it
really briefly this
afternoon but do you
mind?
Okay yeah.
But basically
30 minutes before
youth group
I checked everyone's
Facebook profile
and wrote them all
down.
And then came to
youth group
handed out paper
and then I went
through each one
and read out
what their line was
and they couldn't
say it was them
and they had to
guess what each
other's profile was.
And they really
loved the fact that
everyone knows
their profile.
And so often
young people
they put their
profile out there
they want people
to hear it
they want people
to like it
they want people
to comment on it.
so they really
responded well
to we've got to
hear what everyone
and we even got
to interact with
you said you had
a bad week
what happened
and the school
was very positive.
Yeah.
Our youth group
where we were at
very small
we had eight or
nine kids
and so that was
just a really nice
because one thing
I'm going to say
to you later
is you want to
start the group
by saying
we're a group.
Like it's really
good to be back
together.
You know we
haven't met
for a week
and so let's
kind of catch up
and rediscover
our groupness.
And so the welcome
is very important
for that.
So a really nice
way just to start
the group
speaks right
to their culture.
Those of you
who are kind of
under 25
this is where
you live and breathe
and it's brilliant.
But this is
the third pillar
not the first pillar.
So this is not
how do we attract
kids through
gadgetry
but it's
hey we're a
Christian group
we do Christian
things but we
have to factor
in culture
for crying out loud.
You know it's
where we live.
We need to factor
in learning styles.
This is where
we in Sydney
fail miserably
because we
we have learned
one learning style
and to be honest
I'm doing it right now
where we just
speak a long time
and kids listen.
That's where
my time
at the youth group
at Oakhurst
out in Sydney's west
was super profitable.
because we had
kids who couldn't
listen for 10 seconds.
We had kids
who couldn't read
and so suddenly
I had to think
through okay
how do I take
a 25 minute message
that's
exposition
it's a Bible passage
how do I take that
and deliver it
in a way
that Brendan
can grasp.
Brendan
is a
he was a great
person
but he was
challenged
when it came
to
hearing and
listening
for 25 minutes.
So we had to
think through
very carefully
how do we do it
bang
very active
and so
you may need to
talk to a school
teacher
and say to a school
teacher
listen what do I do
what do I do
because school
teachers are masters
at well you want
to maybe have
three things
and you want
to have a variety
and so you do this
and then you do this
think ah
that is great
so think through
learning skills
active learning
have you not noticed
that most of your kids
are medicated
to the eyeballs
these days
they need
they need something
energy
or something
something
but let's build that
into our teaching
program
let's build it
into maybe
our prayer times
some of you
might be wrestling
through
you know
do we have
moving prayer
for some of you
that feels a little
uncomfortable
but one
one aspect
of youth
ministry
that's taken
quite a hold
in other parts
of the world
is thinking
through stations
where you
you repent
here
and you pray
for friends
there
and you thank
God for creation
there
and you
that's proven
to be very
very popular
with post-millennials
I can see
a number of groups
doing it here
where there's a movement
built in
Lonnie
who's over here
she really liked
liturgical dancing
she loved
that was a private
joke
sorry
we take in
adolescent development
so if you're
running a wider
youth group
of grade 6
to 12
ouch
you know
I run a youth group
from grade 6
to 12
but ouch
you know
we've got
little Elliot
who's just
full of beans
he's a terrific
kid
but he's just
he's just
and then we've got
Roy
who's in grade 12
who's really
wrestling with his future
so I've got to think
through
man how do I do this
so I've got to
really think creatively
about my program
it's hard
it's hard to do
but I want to
factor that in
because the third
pillar is super important
now what I'm going
to tell you
in a few minutes
is we're not
good at this
what we do is
we start with
some games
and we move
to the Bible
that's what we do
that is such
there's not a lot
of thought
that goes into
that program
but get rid of that
this afternoon
get rid of that
program
and rethink
so those are
those are our
three pillars
and I want you
to notice
the movement
here
the movement
is
the movement
is
our theology
impacts
our practice
so there are
things that
we're not
going to do
I'm not
I'm going to
do
I'm going to
do very few
activities
if any
that I can't
see a high
degree of
profit
from
especially
theologically
does this
help the
community of
God
connect with
each other
better
does this
help the
community of
God
connect with
God
better
does this
activity
help us
to pray
learn the
Bible
love
because
I'm
theologically
driven
but if I
just think
this activity
will quote
blow off
steam
it's gone
as I was
saying to
some youth
leaders the
other day
I have
never in
the history
of my
youth
ministry
seen a
kid blow
off steam
if somebody
says to you
well we do
this activity
just to let
them blow
off steam
grab their
tongue and
see how far
it will
actually come
out
like in
the cartoons
kids don't
blow off steam
kids get
more hyped
up
and so
that's a
concept
that I say
not really
that's not a
category I'm going to
think to
letting off steam
but connecting
learning actively
those are
concepts that I
think through
now anybody have
a question about
that
anybody have a
question or a
thought
yeah
I'd rather
not but
sometimes we
have to
yeah
partly that's
going to
that's going to
depend on the
structure of some
things going on in
your youth program
do you have
small groups
where the kids
go and join a
small group Bible
study
if I'm a big
believer in running
a small group
network we're going
to talk about that
in the next
session
so I'm not
going to do a
lot of small
group activities
in the
actual main
program
but it's not a
bad thing to do
by any stretch of
the imagination
it's a very good
thing to do
we just don't
need them because
we have cell
groups that meet
at another time
I
in some
situations
yes I would
split the
teaching
I don't
personally do
that but I
can see the
argument for it
okay
junior hires
Brad's going to
take you
you're going to
do this and
the senior hires
will stay
I tend not
to do that
I tend to
keep them
all together
and what I'm
going to try
to do is
pick my
median level
and it's hard
so generally
I aim for
kind of
year 11
year 10
and then I'm
going to think
through okay
I want to make
sure that my
talk has some
interactiveness to
it
maybe some
movement involved
and some
kind of
turn to the
person next
to you
and act
this out
or I
need a
few of
you to
come on
up and
do this
drama as
part of my
talk or
I need
here's the
white board
I want you to
really quickly
get into groups
come up with
blah blah blah
and write up on
the board
yada yada
yada
so I
what I'm
going to do
is what I
said a few
minutes ago
I'm going to
try to build
in three
movements in
my talk
now I've
got to be
honest with
you
I tend to
be lazy
and that
often goes
by the
wayside
to build
that in
is going to
take an
extra hour
of work
on your
talk
and so
for those
of you who
are volunteers
and giving
talks
that's hard
work
yeah
so if you
were finding
a medium
level
in your
group
do you
ever find
that the
kids
I know
you're
saying
put all
the
three
stages
but
do you
ever
find
that the
younger
like
the
seven
miss out
in the
12
miss out
yeah
good
very good
question
what do
you do
you know
that's
why I'm
a big
believer
if you
can
in having
two youth
groups
junior high
senior high
I think
that's
the best
world
to do
it
because
then I'm
aiming
a little
bit
more for
the grade
nines
and I'm
just
I'm
just
saying
grade
sevens
you'll
get
it
and
I
think
we've
seen
often
the grade
nines
have a
bit of
a pull
for the
grade
sevens
the grade
sevens
like having
the grade
nines
there
that's
a bit
of
so they'll
often sit
through a
talk that's
boring
and I'll
aim a little
bit more
for the
grade
twelves
but yeah
and in
my youth
group right
now
this
this youth
Elliot
tremendous
kid
but quite
frankly he
can drive
some of
the grade
twelves
crazy
he gets
up all
the time
and goes
to the
fridge
there's a
fridge
in our
thing
and raids
the fridge
during youth
group
and it's
awesome
but it's
really
awkward
yeah I'm
a volunteer
so I've
got so
many other
things to
do
but I
don't
believe in
teaching
youth
ministry
not doing
youth
ministry
so
I said
to the
kids
when we
were starting
the youth
group
I said
hey guys
I'd really
like to
make this
grade
nine
to
twelve
and they
said
but what
about
Doug
and I
thought
fair enough
we'll
make it
seven
to twelve
because
I love
Doug
and I
thought
I'm
not going
to come
in and
say
your friend
can't
come
but it
created
problems
do you
have a
comment
on that
at all
mind
the Canadian
kids loved
sock puppet
memory
verses
it was
just a
winner
so
we might
talk about
later