Guest Post

Is there Good News in your neighborhood?

May 15, 2012 By doug 6 Comments

GUEST POST: Adam McLane is a lifelong student of youth ministry, a veteran youth pastor, and mentor to an ever-expanding web of students and adults. Adam is a partner in The Youth Cartel, a full-service consulting firm specializing in helping churches, businesses and ministries connect with teenagers, young adults, and youth workers.

“You have a horrible job. You go to work early and come home late. You rush around everywhere. And when you are home there are always people coming over at all hours. You have a beautiful yard, too bad you never get to enjoy it. I don’t know what kind of church you work at but I’d never want to be a part of something like that. My life is way better than that.”

Talk about letting the air out of the balloon. I’d spent a couple years waving and trying to make small talk with my next door neighbor and this is the first serious conversation we ever had.

Of course he was right. If all he knew about my family was what he observed through his kitchen window his synopsis was dead on. Everything he said was true. I was working like crazy at the church, but in three years, had done little more than shake my neighbors’ hands and exchange names.

Simply put, my life wasn’t Good News to him. In fact, as he so clearly articulated, the way I lived was pushing him further away from God. I’ve read tons of books on evangelism and apologetics and let me state the obvious: Nothing I could say was going to draw this neighbor closer to God because I was living in a way he didn’t want to have anything to do with.

His prophetic words were a tough pill to swallow. But it was the truth. If I wanted to make an impact on my neighborhood I was going to need to change how I lived before my neighbors.

That experience lead to a number of difficult reflections:
•My students aren’t inviting their peers because I’m not inviting my peers.
•I tell my students to get to know people outside of the youth group, yet my entire life revolves around serving the people who go to my church.
•I believe God placed me in my neighborhood on purpose but I don’t live like it.
•Empirically, I know that in a post-Christian society what I do validates what I say, but I don’t live like it.
•I believe God wants me to be Good News in my community as a physical representation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

That conversation and those reflections changed the course of my life. Since that time our family has gradually (and sometimes radically) reoriented our lives around the neighborhood God has placed us in. We now know our neighbors. More than their names, we know bits and pieces of their stories. We serve them and are served by them. And as we’ve lived before them as Good News conversations of the Good News flow naturally.

From the outside, it probably looks like this process of becoming Good News in the Neighborhood is an evangelism strategy. And if that means you’ll try it… call it what you want! What we’ve discovered is that orienting our lives in such a way brings life and renewal to our neighborhood in ways far beyond our eternal destiny. We’ve seen Jesus work through our family to make the here-and-now better.

A special offer: This Spring, Jon Huckins (NieuCommunities & author of Thin Places and Teaching Through the Art of Storytelling). and I wrote a 6-week curriculum for groups called, Good News in the Neighborhood. It’s six Bible studies and six experiments that will get your students out of the classroom and taking first steps in their neighborhoods. If you buy it before June 1st you’ll save $10 with coupon code DOUGROCKS. Click here

Note from Doug: I love this product! Jon and Adam do a great job at engaging students (and adults) to think a little different about “being” the Good News and evangelism. I really believe we’re going to be hearing some exciting results as youth workers engage their students with this curriculum. I’m THRILLED to endorse it.

Question: Ask Adam specific questions about this product… he’ll answer them. Ask here.

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Filed Under: Guest Post, Ministry (general), posts, youth ministry Tagged With: Adam McLane, evangelism, Good News, Good News in the Neighborhood, neighbors, peer relationships, Youth Cartel

Spiritual Maturity: A Note to Parents–Misplaced Priorities

May 10, 2012 By doug 3 Comments

GUEST POST by Gregg Farah serves as a teaching pastor and the student ministry pastor at Shelter Rock Church on Long Island. He and his wife, Janine have been married for 20+ years and are the parents of three amazing daughters. Gregg says besides hanging out and laughing with his family, he enjoys writing, pursuring the perfect pizza slice, cheering for the Mets, and playing sports. Gregg is trying something risky–click here to get involved.

“You’ve got to help me. My son won’t return my calls from college, he’s failing three of his classes, and he’s gotten written up two times in his dorm for alcohol use.”

I wish I didn’t have to deal with conversations like this but, sadly, I do.

I hope I won’t have these conversations as a parent and, prayerfully, I won’t.

But what makes the difference? What allows one college freshman to walk with courage and faith amidst temptation, while another leaves Jesus at home, succumbing to seemingly every impulse?

Please understand: there is NO magic formula, NOR is there a hidden parenting secret. But there are values and priorities which can help (not insure) teens to walk with Jesus after graduating from high school. One of those priorities is faithful church attendance and active involvement in a youth group. The challenge, of course, is that while that is a noble goal, parents are assaulted with the belief that their children must excel in everything. As a result, soccer games, choir competitions, SAT prep courses, and other laudable activities vie for the same limited time available to a family. And church attendance or youth group activity is often the first to go.

I have three children, two of them teenagers, and I want them to be physically fit, adept in social settings, and achieve all they can academically and in other endeavors. But my greatest desire, my biggest prayer, is that they would be spiritually mature. In fact, I am willing to sacrifice their education, their chair in the orchestra, or time on the playing field for them to walk out of my home and into the world prepared to succeed as best as possible.

Some might retort, “My child needs to do well in school or athletics in order to get into a top college. That has to take priority.” Again, hear my heart: I agree that is a valuable priority, but even if your son or daughter gets a full scholarship, unless he or she has the skills and knowledge necessary to overcome peer and intellectual pressure, that scholarship may end up being withdrawn or traded for unhealthy lifestyle choices. I’m all for education, but not at the expense of my children’s mental, emotional, or spiritual health.

Still, I’m a parent who wrestles with priorities, and whether or not my children can skip church this week or next. But I recognize now, more than ever, that the sand in my “kids at home” hourglass is all too quickly running out. I feel the pressure to do everything perfectly so that my kids don’t end up as statistics, don’t get hurt by their choices, and don’t miss out on all God has for them. Of course, perfect parenting is foolish. It’s both a heavy burden and an impossible aspiration. So, I don’t strive for perfection, but the cry of my heart is that I make a right decision…today. And maybe another one tomorrow. How about a few next week?

Priorities must be established for our children, and academic, athletic, or artistic goals have value. But be aware that they will compete with spiritual goals. Recognize the challenge and prepare for a battle, one that seeks to claim the souls of our families.

To be continued….

Talk About It As a Family:
1.What spiritual growth goals does our family have?
2.Is it ever OK for an activity or goal to take the place of church or youth group? When?
3.What are 1-2 things we can do as a family this week to help us connect with one another and with God?

Question: Do you agree with Gregg? Disagree? Thoughts? Share them here.

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Filed Under: Family, Guest Post, Parenting, posts Tagged With: faith development, Gregg Farah, priorities, spiritual maturity

BAD WATER kills more children daily than AIDS, Malaria, Measles and Warfare COMBINED.

April 20, 2012 By doug 1 Comment

I suppose you’ve never heard of a contest where you could vote for one contestant, and if they win, you’d save TENS OF THOUSANDS of lives. But that is exactly the case right now.

Text HKW to 50500 and I’ll explain what a difference that could make.

My name is T. J. Foltz. I’ve spent my entire adult life in youth and children’s ministry. Critically important work we do. I love it. But recently, some friends of mine and I were steered in prayer to start a bottled water franchise called Humankind Water. We give 100% of the net profits to fund wells and filtration systems in areas of the world where children are quite literally dying for a clean drink. 10,000 children will die TODAY for no other reason than the ridiculous PREVENTABLE cause–drinking contaminated water.

If you’ve taken a missions trip before, you’ve likely seen what I’ve seen and, like me, you’ll never be the same. Maybe you’ve seen a mother holding a baby bottle up to her toddlers mouth, and you said to yourself “Please, God. Please tell me what that kid is drinking is iced tea.” But it wasn’t. It was the only water she had access to. No wonder it kills more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.

So here are a bunch of youth pastors, with help from experienced “business-types”, starting up a bottled water company. Figuring out barcodes and QR codes. We find the right source and make a cool bottle.

Then along comes WalMart’s contest.

Three months ago (now it seems like a year and half) a buddy of mine sends me an email. WalMart is having this competition, see. It’s like “American Idol” but for products, not singers. Whichever product gets the most votes gets a coveted spot to be sold on WalMart’s shelves. WalMart has 200 MILLION shoppers. Conservative estimates are saying that winning this contest could mean millions of dollars. And since we’ve committed to giving away ALL of the net profits, that will buy a LOT of wells and filters. We did the math–we could literally save tens of thousands of lives.

If you could win the lottery but you had to give it away, would it still be fun? Would it still be wildly satisfying? The contest runs like this: Everybody gets two votes per day. You can cast one via text (TEXT 4829 to 383838) and one via Facebook (click the “VOTE NOW” button at www.humankindwater.org)
4,300 products entered. Four weeks of a grueling round one, PRAISE GOD, we emerged in the top 10 – the finals.

And that’s where we are right now. And that’s why we need your help.

WalMart isn’t revealing exact vote counts or standings. They put out this mind-numbingly mysterious metric called “trending”. You can see it at their contest web site www.getontheshelf.com. But by our own metrics (and I wrote this a day before you’ll read it) we are in SECOND PLACE.

My friends, my fellow ministry leaders/readers: UNITE! If all of the youth pastors reading this blog will agree to vote every day, twice a day between now and April 24 AND if you get everybody in your youth group to vote it could push us over the top. How fun would that be? To have this national contest put on by the retail MONOLITH of the universe, be the contest that YOUTH MINISTRY won. Someone should write a book.

Let’s win this sucker. Let’s win this thing. Will you help us?

1. Pray. Pray for us to win, and in winning make millions, and in making millions save THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of children’s lives. I get $0 from the sales of the water.

2. Vote. Text 4829 to 383838. Go to www.humankindwater.org and click “Vote NOW” to cast your second vote, via Facebook.

3. Get the reminders. We set up a simple reminder tool which just might win the whole thing.
TEXT HKW to 50500. That doesn’t cast a vote. But it sends a “how to” on voting and gives the all important daily reminder to vote. Regular text charges apply with no surcharge at all. We promise not to hound you after the competition, but we most certainly WILL bug you til it’s over. There is so much at stake. This text has been our best tool by far.

4. Tell your kids. And please tell them right away. There are only a few days left.

5. Tell your kids to tell their friends.

I’m a single dad. Every night when I tuck my two beautiful boys in bed, the younger one, Elijah, always asks the same thing. “Dad, can I get a cup of fresh water?” I do what you do. Without thinking about it I get him a cup of water. I can’t imagine giving him sewage. But that’s exactly what millions of parents are forced to do. They have no choice. If we win, we will give hundreds of thousands of people that clean cup of water. Please help us win. Do you have a network of friends who don’t read this blog who might want to help?

If you and/or your church is interested… I’d be happy to come speak to your church/teens/etc… about youth in missions. I can share about taking a leap of faith. I can share about caring for the least of these. And I really hope I will be able to share about this National contest that we won! You can reach me at tj@humankindwater.org.

Thanks for all your help! God bless you.

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