Well, I’m not sure I’ve said too much on the blog, but I’m starting a new adventure (feels like we just started a new adventure 3 years ago). After 18 years of working with Youth Ministry International, God is moving me back into local church ministry. Starting next month, I’ll be the student pastor at Springdale Community Church in Louisville, KY.
This is a big move that I’m sure will have many challenges, but I’m excited about serving in this capacity and watching God work in the lives of students and their families.
(more…)
During my recent trip to Cuba, I conducted a research project about compassion for the lost in the lives of adolescents who participate in short-term mission trips. It was a quick study that yielded some interesting results.
One of the most important things that I learned in my research was this:
A mentor or pastor is important to help adolescents develop the compassion for the lost by helping them see people all around them who need to know Jesus. Compassion for the lost is not something that automatically happens in the lives of young people, but it can be influenced by the life of someone else and the prompting of a pastor or group of friends who will help them see what they are missing as they see others and interact with them.
When Jesus tells his disciples to pray for laborers (Matt 9:36), he is demonstrating his own compassion for the lost and helping them increase their compassion. Good mentors and youth pastors will help young people see the opportunities all around them, and their own compassion will deeply affect the adolescents to whom they are ministering.
Too often we overlook the fact that our job as pastors and mentors (and parents) is to help cultivate compassion for the lost in the lives of those around us.
As we walk and talk, teach and disciple, we need to include compassion for others in our conversations. We need to remind our children and our students that God loves the brokenhearted and is seeking to save the lost–and he wants to use us to introduce them to Him. Just putting them into a position to do something that is service or mission related is probably not enough. We need to use those experiences to launch into conversations that revolve around compassion and caring.
My hope is that as a parent I can have compassion for those around me and teach my children and others to see the world as God sees it–and to have compassion on it as He does.
Have you ever felt like giving up? It’s pretty easy to do when life becomes difficult or when things just don’t seem to go our way. Often, God uses someone around us to speak His Word to us and remind us to keep going.
Every once in a while, I get an incredible comment that I’d like to share with you.
Recently, on my YouTube channel where I post videos encouraging and equipping Spanish speaking youth workers, I received the following comment. I hope it encourages you to speak a word of encouragement to someone today.
(more…)
Friday night Josue and I were on our way home from a great youth group meeting. Around 40 young people were there dressed as Toy Story, Star Wars, and other Disney characters. Many of them have come to Christ through the ministry of Josue and Kareny at their local church. There was food, games, and good fun. We left satisfied by what we saw and the way the young people responded to good Christian relationship building.
On the way home, we stopped at Oxxo, a Mexican convenience store that competes with 7-Eleven for business. While we were there buying water and snacks, around ten to fifteen young high school kids came into the store and went straight for the alcohol section of the cooler. Nobody asked them for identification, and the clerk behind the counter didn’t bat an eye when two of them asked for three bottles of Tequila that was stored behind the counter. There wasn’t a parent in sight.
I know this stuff happens in the USA as well–even with good “church kids”, and many parents authorize underage drinking and other things, but it broke my and Josue’s hearts as we saw these kids ready for a Saturday night of hard partying without anyone to speak truth into their lives. It reminded us of the battle we are in against spiritual darkness and that we still have so much more work to do.
Please pray for the youth of Mexico. Pray that God would raise up a generation of youth leaders and a church willing to rescue young people like the ones we saw Saturday night—a church ready to engage the culture and speak truth to young people who are looking to fill their lives with something meaningful.
There seems to be an attitude in the world today that says that High School students only look out for themselves and are incapable of making the world a better place. Many adults seem to discount them as a waste of time or just a bunch of hoodlums who are looking for trouble.
We’ve all read articles about the horrible use of social media to shame others and cyber-bully those who aren’t like the rest. We’ve seen the horror stories on the news about how many young people are picked on so much that they no longer want to live.
The things mentioned above are tragic, and there are many things we need to do to fix them.
On the other hand, however, are stories that hardly get the media attention they deserve and point out the incredible potential in high school students. This story tells of three football players at a Texas high school who started a drive to raise money to buy shoes for a classmate who had been wearing shoes a few sizes too small.
(more…)
I saw this video posted on Facebook, and I wanted to comment on it here. It’s about a Latin teacher who has cancer. He’s sitting at his window, and outside are 400 students worshipping God and singing a song with him. Watch the video below:
I’m sure there is a lot to this story, but it is obvious that there is an adult–a teacher–who is loved by young people and being honored by them because of the influence he has had on their lives. There is no doubt many other former students who would have been there if they could.
(more…)
