What is…?

Posted by on June 4, 2010 in Youth Ministry 2 comments

image I read an interesting article on TechCrunch the other day that asked a simple question of two tech companies – “What is Yahoo/AOL?” AOL had a very succinct answer to what they were, while Yahoo delivered a rambling, incoherent non-answer that just left me (and the author of the article) confused.

I am not trying to turn this into a tech blog(although, I probably would make a ton of money doing it…hmm, something to consider). I simply loved the question, and how it relates to ministry. Lets turn it to your church. Can you answer “What is [your church name] ?” Can you do it in a clear and easy to understand answer? Or will it ramble, drawing on half a dozen bible verses, the latest ministry buzzwords, ideas from churches around the country, and your own additions?

In ministry circles, we call this the “mission statement.”  Most churches (and their various ministries) have a mission statement of some sort. From my experience, they fall under 3 categories – 1) The long and rambling non answer described above; 2) “Borrowed” from Saddleback or some other mega-church; 3) Genuine description of what the church is truly about.

I am not going to dive deep into how to write a mission statement. You can find plenty of resources about how to do that elsewhere. What I want to do is to encourage you to create something that really reflects who you are and what you want to do as a church/ministry, and says it in a short, succinct, and easy to remember way.

For example, here is the mission statement I put together for my previous ministry -

We exist to equip young people to develop a deeper relationship with Christ, encourage uplifting relationships with other Christians, and empower life changing relationships with non-believers.

To shorten it down even further, my ministry equips, encourages, and empowers. For another example, my home church had the statement, “Love God, Love others, Love the lost.” Pretty simple, and it embodies what we’re supposed to do.

To visit the opposite spectrum, I once served at a church that had a “mission statement” that was easily a page long. It said a lot of good things that the church should be doing, but it was so long that no one knew what it said (interesting anecdote – when I interviewed with them, and asked what their mission statement was, they answered, “Oh, its here on the wall somewhere…” Not a good sign when you don’t even know where your mission statement is located, but live and learn).

So, in conclusion, if you have a mission statement as a youth ministry or church, make sure that you can answer that question of “What is…” your church as simply as possible. If you don’t have one, sit down with your team and answer that question. I’d love to hear your ministry’s mission statement in the comments below!

 

 

 

I also want to take a few seconds to address that question, “What is this blog?” because I’ve really been pondering that question ever since I started writing. I’ve tried a lot of things in these spaces – culture, freebies, games, ministry advice, spiritual guru-ness – and while I feel like I’ve mostly stayed true to what I want to do with this blog, at times I’ve felt pulled in conflicting directions. I want to help youth ministers, and I feel like I have done that. But, in trying to help, I’ve tried to do too much or tried to be too many things. More specifically, I’ve tried to be too many other people – emulating others that I read and follow like Tim Schmoyer, Mike Kupferer, Jonathan McKee, Walt Mueller, Josh Griffen, and many others. So, while I feel like I’ve helped other ministers, I’ve not been totally true to myself and my own calling, gifts, and passions.

So, I really thought hard about how to further refine the blog. I’ve wanted to make this as much about “Youth Ministry Conversations” as I can, because I was really inspired to do this blog by working with other youth ministers and being able to both mentor younger ministers and collaborate with other minds to do ministry. I love the picture that Doug Fields uses in his book, “Your first 2 years in youth ministry" of sitting together and talking over lunch. That is how much of my working and talking with other youth ministers has occurred and just using that picture sums up how I want to proceed here.

With that in mind, I am going to post less regimented. In my mind, I laid out a “topic” for each day. In the beginning that was good to help keep me regular in posting. I didn’t have to sit around saying, “What am I going to write about today?” I knew on Tuesday I’d have a video to post, Wednesday was a game, etc. I am going to keep 3 things that I really loved – Freebies, Games, and Advice. I’ll probably play with which days I am going to post what for a while. I wanted to keep the freebies because I have always been in a church with little to no budget, and thousands of ministers are in that same boat. We need to be creative with finding great resources for little to no cost. The games I considered tossing, because I am not by nature a “game guy.” But, I think that games, done right with the proper context, are very important to a ministry. Finally, I definitely want to keep the advice flowing. Not just from my side either. Since I want this to be a “Conversation” it should be two sided. So, if you see something where you have an idea, or where I’ve totally gone off the deep end, feel free to comment. The new commenting system I’ve set up should help better facilitate conversation. I hope that, since I won’t be scurrying to find something “cultural” to talk about or a cool video, I can allow my mind to just flow a little more freely. One can hope anyways!

I want to thank all those who have been reading my blog over the past few months. Its staggering to think that I’ve had nearly 1000 unique visitors a month stop by and look at my rantings. I hope to continue to provide the same low quality writing that has just the right key words to keep Google happy! Seriously, though, I hope what I’ve written has helped someone, and love to hear your feedback. Thanks guys and gals!

 

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