A Leader's Loss Of Passion
If I could give only one gift to the youth leaders of today, it would be a fresh dose of passion for the calling we are privileged to live out. It was once said, "The worst bankruptcy in the world is the leader who has lost his passion." And now many years into the youth ministry journey, I agree with these words...but find the answer to this challenge a bit more elusive. How do you reignite passion for the sacred challenge of impacting today's youth culture for Christ?
I easily "believe something" about youth ministry. I bet you do too. But often, as my passion wanes, I admit to myself that I've lost a "sense of conviction" about my ministry. And there is a world of difference. Belief agrees with the facts, but conviction brings persistent action to my belief. So let me reach inside myself and tell you a couple of things I do when I sense my own passion about youth ministry beginning to wane.
- I remind myself that true identity isn't about "finding" myself. Instead, it's about "creating" myself.
And with that simple realization, I'm reminded that my passion is a choice, not an emotion. It's often said that the tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon—but that most of us wait so long to truly begin it. So when my "passion tank" dips low, I summon the will power to be bigger than my junior high emotional mood swings. I reach inside myself and CHOOSE to keep investing myself into teenagers, no matter how phony the enemy tries to make me feel. I refuse to allow the growing emotional blahness to overtake me. After all, I can always ACT MYSELF into a right feeling far quicker than I can FEEL MYSELF into a right action. - I spend some extra time with a student I find motivational and guard myself from heavy interaction with "the depleters."
For example, an eternally "needy" student came up to me after church and inwardly, I wanted to run the other way. Relate? After a few depressing minutes of conversation, my eyes caught another student who is sharp and spiritually growing. For my own good, I slipped away from the first conversation and connected with the second student. We firmed up a Coke appointment this week and I walked away, internally smiling again. I've learned that too many "EGR's" (Extra Grace Required) in youth ministry can suck the passion out of even the best leaders.
If I could give only one gift to the youth leaders of today, it would be a fresh dose of passion for the calling we are privileged to live out. It was once said, "The worst bankruptcy in the world is the leader who has lost his passion." And now many years into the youth ministry journey, I agree with these words...but find the answer to this challenge a bit more elusive. How do you reignite passion for the sacred challenge of impacting today's youth culture for Christ?
I easily "believe something" about youth ministry. I bet you do too. But often, as my passion wanes, I admit to myself that I've lost a "sense of conviction" about my ministry. And there is a world of difference. Belief agrees with the facts, but conviction brings persistent action to my belief. So let me reach inside myself and tell you a couple of things I do when I sense my own passion about youth ministry beginning to wane.
- I remind myself that true identity isn't about "finding" myself. Instead, it's about "creating" myself.
And with that simple realization, I'm reminded that my passion is a choice, not an emotion. It's often said that the tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon—but that most of us wait so long to truly begin it. So when my "passion tank" dips low, I summon the will power to be bigger than my junior high emotional mood swings. I reach inside myself and CHOOSE to keep investing myself into teenagers, no matter how phony the enemy tries to make me feel. I refuse to allow the growing emotional blahness to overtake me. After all, I can always ACT MYSELF into a right feeling far quicker than I can FEEL MYSELF into a right action. - I spend some extra time with a student I find motivational and guard myself from heavy interaction with "the depleters."
For example, an eternally "needy" student came up to me after church and inwardly, I wanted to run the other way. Relate? After a few depressing minutes of conversation, my eyes caught another student who is sharp and spiritually growing. For my own good, I slipped away from the first conversation and connected with the second student. We firmed up a Coke appointment this week and I walked away, internally smiling again. I've learned that too many "EGR's" (Extra Grace Required) in youth ministry can suck the passion out of even the best leaders.
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If I could do just one single thing for youth pastors today, I would try to fan their spiritual passion.
In my journey, I have found that there is really very little correlation between spiritual success and ministry success. Too often, talent becomes a remarkable substitute for character and spiritual passion. In ministry it is too easy to know "things" and not know "God." With ease, we can bluff our way through and, unfortunately, more than likely nobody will catch us.
I am determined not to be a "poser." In this Youth Leader's Coach, I will give you tips I've learned along the way that might prevent you from becoming one as well.
Lovingly,
You'll enjoy this Source, "A Cause Worth Fighting For." So often we preach messages to our students about keeping the future and their God-given destiny in focus in their lives, or we help them to get free from the past issues in their lives. But tonight's Source asked our students, "What cause are you fighting for...RIGHT NOW?"
Without a sense of cause in our lives, it's all too easy to slip into routine and complacency during the day-in, day-out moments. As youth ministers, let's keep before our student's eyes, these pivotal questions: What is going to be part of my signature? What matters to me that counts for eternity? Remember, youth leaders, it's in the daily decisions that lead to our ultimate destiny. So grab this Source and passionately encourage your students to find their cause worth fighting for.
Still fighting for the cause,
We're wired to feel...we like it...in fact, we love it! I would go so far as to say that we have an "addiction" problem. We want to "feel" when it comes to our music, media, friendships, etc. Unfortunately, with it typically comes the desire to abandon it or them once we no longer "feel" the same way.
If we're not careful, we can have that same faulty mentality when it comes to the Lord. Most of us can tell you an exact time and place where we felt God the most, maybe on a retreat or during a worship service. But, we can also tell you that the "feeling" wore off a few days later and, if we're honest, how we secretly longed to have it back.
I guess I wish some of my leaders would have been more forthright regarding how to handle "non-feeling" times. I think that's why I am so impassioned about walking through them with my students. In this Source, "God, I Can't Feel You Anymore!," we navigate through causes and solutions for those times. An eye-opening Whitney Houston interview, a heart-wrenching Holocaust story, an honest excerpt from, Uncensored: Finding God When He Feels Far Away, and Jesus' own story, help students understand that when they feel God the least, they may be pleasing Him the most.
Lovingly,
We're all pretty desperate about getting our problems solved, but we want the solution without it costing us something. I think that's why we have so many half-hearted Christians these days. Why? Because when something ceases to cost you something big, it ceases to mean something big.
In this month's Source, "How bad do you want it?," my ground zero question is, "Does it take desperate times for you to pursue God desperately?" My heart behind this message is to inspire some of us to make the personal choice to passionately come after God no matter what our feeling level.
Fanning the flame,
Contrary to what many people think, it is not your talent or your intelligence that is really the major predictor of how much happiness or success you're going to have in your life, your family, your vocation, or your ministry. A far more accurate predictor of those factors is your GRIT. And best news is that grit isn't something you are just "born with"...but it is something you can cultivate!
In this Youth Leader's Coach, I share pragmatics from the book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth. We'll take a look at what "grit" is. I'll also share four psychological assets that, if you choose to grow them over time, will help you grow your GRIT. As novelist John Irving says, "To do anything really well, you have to OVEREXTEND YOURSELF."
Committed to growing my GRIT,
