Each month our church comes together for an evening of worship that’s intended to be open, flexible, experiential and interactive. It’s always a great time!

Last week everyone was given a little rock as they entered the room and we used it for a couple symbolism things throughout the evening. I led the prayer time using the following meditative prayer outline I put together below. Feel free to use it with your groups as a way of breaking the prayer ruts we often fall into.

———————————————————————-

The rock can represent a number of different things. Let’s prayerfully reflect on it together.
If you want to move to another place in the room for more privacy, kneel, feel free.

• Feel the stone. Study it. How is it unique from every other rock in existence? (pause for prayer/reflection)
• How are you unique from every other person created by God? (pause for prayer/reflection)
• READ ALOUD: Psalm 139:1-18, 23-24

Rocks can also causes us to slip and stumble, to loose traction in our walk.

• What’s causing you to slip and stumble in your walk with the Lord? What are you tripping over? Pray about it. (pause for prayer/reflection)
• READ ALOUD: 1 Corinthians 10:6-13

The rock can also represent our burdens, the things that weigh us down.

• As you look and feel your rock, what burdens does it represent in your life? (pause for prayer/reflection)
• How is God using that burden to teach you something? (pause for prayer/reflection)
• READ ALOUD: 1 Peter 5:3; Matthew 11:28-30
• Place your stone on the floor in front of you, symbolizing that you’ve laid it at the feet of Jesus.

But most importantly, the rock represents Jesus. He’s the only one who can help us, grant us victory, and be the solid, firm foundation that our lives were intended to have in Him.

• In what areas of your life do you need Jesus to be your rock? (pause for prayer/reflection)
• READ ALOUD: Psalm 27:1-8, 13-14; Psalm 28:1-2, 6-9; Psalm 18:1-3
• Think about what it means for Jesus to be “the rock of your salvation.” Praise Him, thank Him, and worship Him for that in prayer.
• Pick your rock up again and hold on to it as a reminder of Jesus being your rock.

———————————————————————-
Join us at 2:00 PM EST this afternoon in our LIVE YM Talk. Our featured guest is Rob Kashow who will talk with us about teaching theology in youth ministry. See the LIVE YM Talk page for details on how to join the call and/or the live chat.

This week is a crazy busy week for me. The culmination of a ton of stuff comes down to this weekend and next week.

• This Sunday 56 jr. highers are giving their testimonies in church via video that I have to finish shooting and editing.
• There’s an end-of-the-year jr. high party next week I’ve barely starting planning
• Sr. high ministry evaluations need to be written and handed out
• My youth budget receipts need to be balanced and turned in (they were due last Monday)
• The summer youth schedule needs to be handed out next and I haven’t even started putting it together
• A news email needs to go out with reminders and updates about things going on this Sunday and next week
• I need to write my lesson for Sunday night’s sr. high large-group meeting

And that’s just the beginning of it!

So this afternoon when a prayer meeting with other local youth pastors was drawing closer, I looked at the clock and thought to myself, “There is no way I can make it to that meeting this afternoon. I have way too much to do. I don’t have time to pray today.” Then I paused and thought, “Wait, did I seriously just think that?” I chuckled to myself and realized my priorities were totally out of wack. Just the fact that a thought like that crossed my mind was very convicting. What else could possibly be a better use of my time than spending time in prayer? Sure, I’m busy and a bit stressed right now, but shouldn’t that be the very time I stop to pray instead of trying to haul through it in my own strength?

Needless to say, I put everything on hold and went to that prayer meeting. It was great! Us youth pastors met at a local church and car-pooled to a park where we talked, shared, and prayed together. Then, to top off the day, I destressed by meeting up with brother and cranked out a 37 mile bike ride with him in the country farm land. Nothing like riding through God’s creation to put everything back in perspective again.

Are you too busy to pray today?

[ This post is based on an interview I did last year. ]

These lists could be a lot longer, but here are a couple to get you started. I’d love for you guys to continue these lists in the comments below.

Current problems

1. Youth leaders are not internalizing the Word themselves before they teach it to others, and thus a disconnect between real life and faith is unintentionally communicated.

2. Parents are not being the spiritual role models their teenagers desperately need.

3. Youth ministries are too wrapped up in “doing” ministry rather than “being” ministry. Ministries find their identity in their function instead of seeking the Lord first for their identity and vision and then letting function flow from that.

4. Youth leader don’t pray enough. If we truly believed in the power of prayer, we’d spend more time in prayer than anything else.

Future challenges

1. Perhaps the biggest challenge for youth ministry in the next several years will be defining what community is, and then somehow enabling it to organically take place. The Internet and youth culture continue to change how people view relationships and how they interact. Since we are made in His image and one of the core essentials of that is relationships, we know that community will never go away, but the church’s ideology will either have to shift or be intentional about making a stance. Forming small groups and telling the participants to talk to each other for a couple years is not necessarily community.

2. Somewhat related is that our communication and teaching styles may need to change. Rather than lecturing from a stage or even discussing in a classroom small group, perhaps teaching will need to change to a community-driven experience that interacts with the real world.

What problems do we have? What future challenges do you see for youth ministry? Perhaps most importantly, how are you addressing these problems and challenges in your youth group?

Time Out (by Jerry Schmoyer)

Recently I attended a pastor’s leadership conference and was challenged by the speaker and by God to get serious about my prayer life. Don’t misunderstand, I never stopped praying to God, but I must admit that the quality of my communication with Him leaves lots of room for improvement. I really want to get serious about prayer.

Prayer is a great resource and a wonderful privilege that we just don’t avail ourselves of as we should. It is something we should want to utilize to the fullest. I’m not talking about praying more often or longer, although I’m sure that will be part of it. What I am talking about is connecting with God on a much more regular and deeper level than I have been. When things are going well in my walk with God, my prayer life is great, but when my walk with the Lord struggles, so does my prayer life. I’m not sure which causes the other – I think they both leap frog along together and are dependent on each other.

What do I need to do to get serious about my prayer life? I’ve been more serious about focusing when I pray, pouring out my heart more sincerely, keeping lists of people I said I’d pray for, listening to God’s still, quiet voice speaking to me, and desiring to deepen my personal relationship with Him. It takes focus, it takes time, it means having my priorities right, and it demands honesty and openness in my time with Him, but it certainly is worth it. I really do want to get serious about my prayer life. What about you?

Scripture
Phil 3:7-14, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead…. One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Reflect

• Evaluate your recent prayer life. Honestly, what would God say about it?
• Why not start right now – take a few extra minutes to really connect with God. What could be a better use of your time?

———————————————————————-

Jerry Schmoyer has been a minister in Pennsylvania for over 25 years and has worked with teenagers for 14 years, ever since I became one myself. He authors the weekly Time Out series here at Life in Student Ministry in hopes to spiritually refresh your soul as you continually pour so much of yourself into students. God bless!

The first Sunday of every month the youth pastors in our town (collectively called “Allies”) put on an event called Burning Bush. It’s a time for all our youth groups to come together for worship, teaching, equipping and building relationships. Tonight was my night to be the speaker. As the evening started and I was getting ready to take the stage, I realized that not once had I prayed over my lesson. It’s like God struck me upside the head and said, “Dude, who’s message is this? Is this your message or my message?!” After all the time of studying and preparation I had put into the talk, not once did I approach God about it. I couldn’t believe my stupidity. I went off and prayed by myself, begging God to forgive me, and then grabbed one of the other youth pastors and prayed with him, too. The difference between teaching in my own strength and teaching is God’s strength is incredible. When I got up on stage, the whole lesson felt different. It felt like it flowed from me from me rather than being recited from memorized notes. It’s a good thing God works in spite of me, not because of me.

The moral of the story: Communicate God’s Word with God, not your own word without God.

1. Thou shalt pray daily. Pray for personal issues, the ministry, your pastor, students, humility and wisdom. It’s absurd to think that we can effectively serve the Lord in ministry without discussing it with Him on a regular basis. That’s like working for a boss and never listening for direction, only it’s not a business project at stake — it’s teenager’s eternal destiny! We also need to be sure to spend time worshiping in prayer and listening to Him in solitude. Some of my best prayer and worship moments are the times I finally stop talking to God and just listen for Him in silence, waiting for whatever He lays on my heart and mind.

What We’re Doing
For several years now I’ve taken a week every summer to fly up to New Jersey and direct a camp for inner-city Angel Tree children. It’s always a stretching experience because most of the kids have discipline and authority issues, but it’s also very rewarding because many of them have never seen stars before or a horse in real life. Even more importantly, many of them have never heard of Christ or experienced any kind of appropriate love and attention. It’s really a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get these children off the streets and offer them a different perspective on life right before they make choices that lead to drugs, gangs and prostitution.

Who’s Going
Dana and I are taking nine students from my youth group to help serve as counselors for the week. They’ll be sharing their testimonies, teaching Bible studies, leading songs and games, performing skits and mostly loving on kids. Please pray for us this week and next as we exemplify Christ’s love and give these kids the time of their lives.

Trip Updates
I’ll be text messaging updates to the front page of my youth group’s website throughout each day, so if you want the play-by-play of what’s happening on the trip, just keep your eye on www.AlexandriaYouth.com or add me as a friend on Twitter. I’m also going to do my best to upload pictures to our online photo album every night.

Vacation
Immediately following camp, Dana and I are going back to Texas and Oklahoma for her family reunion and to take some vacation time visiting old friends. So, this blog may be quieter than usual for a couple weeks except for a couple posts I have queued up to go, but, Lord willing, I’ll be back. Pray for us!

Here’s the camp team from my church, minus one girl.

[tags]Angel Tree, camp, youth group[/tags]

Three students who graduated from PBU the year before me are serving at New Life Campus Fellowship, a campus church at Virginia Tech of about 1,000 people.

• Terri Dewey (worship arts)
• Chris Backert (pastor, teacher)
• Dom Saia (equipping ministry)

Please remember to pray for them as they minister to students on the campus of Virginia Tech.

Here’s how they’ve responded so far:

Tonight (Monday), we had a prayer vigil at 8pm. Student leaders throughout [nlcf] opened their apartments to those on campus who didn’t want to sleep in the dorm tonight.

This week, our staff will be on call & available to anyone who needs us. We are letting everyone know set places they can find us on campus, and intentionally going into the dorms as much as possible. We will be attending the convocation on campus Tuesday at 12noon, and we are working to plan a prayer vigil on Wednesday mid-day. We will also have this Sunday’s weekly gathering devoted entirely to responding to this week’s events.

Terri, Chris and Dom need our prayers. I can’t imagine the intense pressure, stress and grief they must be addressing on their church’s campus and even experiencing themselves. I guess I feel higher level of responsibility to pray for them because, although they probably don’t remember me, I had several classes with all three of them in Bible college and remember their service on the PBU campus for the three years that we shared there.

[tags]Virginia Tech[/tags]

My time in the Dallas area has come to an end. Dana and I have enjoyed our time here and will miss all our dear friends, our church and the students we’ve come to love so very deeply over the past several years. It wasn’t an easy decision by any means, but we feel that the Lord has led us to accept a new youth ministry position at a church in Minnesota. We’re excited about the move and the ministry God has in store for us there, but it’s still hard to leave our comfort zone here in Dallas and transition to the opposite side of the country. It’s especially difficult for my wife, a born and raised Texan, who’s never seen more than two inches of snow in her life and is leaving all of her family behind. Fortunately, my whole side of the family seems to be migrating to the Minneapolis area, so Dana and I are looking forward to settling closer to them as my two sisters-in-law both deliver new Schmoyer babies into the family this summer. It looks like my sister will also be moving there within a couple months and possibly my parents whenever they finally retire.

So now comes the crazy time of packing, saying goodbyes, leaving security and venturing out into something new. Pray for us as all this continues to unfold and I use my final couple weeks here in Dallas to set up as smooth of a transition as possible. Our last Sunday here is Sunday, February 11, and I officially start at Alexandria Evangelical Covenant Church the very next week, February 18, as their new Youth Pastor.

You can check out my wife’s blog post about it here.