Vision...

As I have been reading today I realized that my ministry lacks vision.  I really have no sense of where I am taking this ministry.  I would probably say that just allowing the Lord to lead and I want the Lord to lead but I believe there has to be some kind of direction.  Without direction we are just wandering aimlessly and we won't know when we have arrived.  How will we praise the victories if we didn't know there was victories to praise.
So as I sit in my office I keep coming back to the same question... What is it going to take to get kids inside the doors of this church?
I feel like I have to own what God is doing here.  Is this a patience issue or is it God trying to stir in me to do something different?  What I do know is that I wouldn't attend what I am doing currently.  I think I need to provide an opportunity for teenagers to encounter Christ. Lord please use me to be effective in reaching out the teenagers in this community.

Discouraged Much?

Do you ever feel like the reason something isn't happening is because you haven't prayed enough, or you sin in holding everything back?  Starting a youth group in an urban area from square one is hard and is often discouraging.  Most weeks 2 kids show up and some weeks only 1 kid shows up.  It makes me think what should I be doing different?  What do I need to be doing to be more effective?  I am not doing this for fame or success I just want to be used by Jesus.  I want to spread the word of Christ to all who will listen.  Am I being naive? Doesn't God want to world to know Jesus? Lord use me to be effective for you.  Lord help to me to meet and know the kids of the Clifton Community,

Urban Ministry

This past weekend I went to the Simply Youth Ministry Conference and I believe that my mind was opened up to some new stuff and some really encouraging things.  It has inspired to me to write about my journey in starting an Urban Youth Ministry.

The journey starts with a desire in my heart to provide an opportunity for the middle schoolers in my program to encounter Jesus outside of children's church.  The place they had been attending.  So I decided was going to launch a youth group.  I prepared everything I knew how to make a youth group happen and only one kid showed up the first week.  I was devastated.  I figured that it would atleast start strong and then fad as I wasn't doing the right thing.  I never expected for it to be just one kid.  It only got worse from there.  Then the next 3 weeks no one showed up.  I took all the blame.  I started to feel defeated almost immediately.  I gave up.  I decided that I would take time to figure everything out.  As I allow you all to see a little self disclosure.  I realized that I was trying to make a youth group happen by my own strength and knowledge.  However I felt like I didn't know what I was doing at all.  Then I started to slowly give things over to God.

Two months later, I relaunched the youth group with a blazing success in my mind.  I had 6 kids show up two weeks in a row.  Then the attendance plummeted back to 2.  Some weeks we have 1.  I have decided that if only one kid shows up that we will continue to move forward.  Pray the whole way.  I am confident that God is moving and that he has a plan for this ministry.  It is hard still when there is only two but I have to trust that God is moving.  I am new to all of this.  I have to continue to grow in my own relationship with Christ and allow his spirit to lead me.  Lord I pray that you will use me for your glory!

In other ministry news I went to a workshop on Bible storying and I am pretty excited to try this concept in the context of the urban ministry.