Jason Curlee blogs at JasonCurlee.com. With over 14 years working in student ministry and now as a Campus Pastor for Bay Area Fellowship in Corpus Christi, Texas, his blogs are about creating content that ministry leaders can find practical and inspirational as well as sharing the ministry principles and experiences accumulated since 1995. Jason says, "It’s about being innovative, unique, and creating content that influences and develops others to make a difference in their world."
Are You Winging It?
I have a little secret. Well, it's not much of a secret, but I don't want the people I led for the first 4 years as a student pastor to know that I spent a lot of time winging it.
This was my usual plan:
I would read and pray during the week but would have no idea what I was speaking on that night. One time I even flipped through the Bible while I was talking about the offering looking for a Scripture to speak on for my message.
I had several adults that showed up to help but they really were just baby sitters since I ran around doing pretty much everything last minute. They showed up and interacted with teams but really didn't do much cause I didn't have anything for them to do.
Since we really didn't plan out most of the music was all practiced about an hour and a half before start time...and it showed most of the time. It was ok but it wasn't great.
The ministry we had was decent for any student ministry in our area but it really wasn't great and our attendance was like a roller coaster. And the kicker was one day I looked up during one of our 45 minute worship sessions and realized that we were no longer reaching the students where they were...we were doing ministry how we liked it.
Are you winging it? Does your ministry sound a little like this?
Then STOP & make a CHANGE!!! The students you lead deserve more than a wing and an prayer.
The students in your community who don't know Christ have a possible eternity more precious than you just showing up and going through the motions.
The future generation of church leaders sitting in your seats deserve a model that shows them how a impacting ministry should run.
Stop winging it today!!! Plan out your messages and show up with a message you have already prepared.
Begin using your adult volunteers as a team of highly specialized youth workers. Develop some leadership positions and have them start leading teens to do the work of the ministry.
Plan ahead and you will see that you will be able to put more creativity into what you producing and will also begin to utilize it to reach more teens.
What area do you need to stop winging it in?
Want to write a guest post for TerraceCrawford.com? Email me.
Are You Winging It?
I have a little secret. Well, it's not much of a secret, but I don't want the people I led for the first 4 years as a student pastor to know that I spent a lot of time winging it.
This was my usual plan:
The ministry we had was decent for any student ministry in our area but it really wasn't great and our attendance was like a roller coaster. And the kicker was one day I looked up during one of our 45 minute worship sessions and realized that we were no longer reaching the students where they were...we were doing ministry how we liked it.
Are you winging it? Does your ministry sound a little like this?
Then STOP & make a CHANGE!!!
Stop winging it today!!!
What area do you need to stop winging it in?
Want to write a guest post for TerraceCrawford.com? Email me.
Labels: Issues, Leadership, Youth Pastors
Great stuff. This is one reason why I like Tony Morgan's book Killing Cockroaches. A lot of times even when I want to plan I get sidetracked by business.