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Why You Need To Develop A Philosophy Of Ministry

This post is part of the Foundations Of Youth Ministry series.  This is the first post in the series.  Check out the rest of the series!

A philosophy of ministry is one of the most important pieces of the youth ministry puzzle.

This simple document is foundational to developing a solid youth ministry.

But what, exactly, is a philosophy of ministry?

The Missing Piece Of The Puzzle

Simply put, it’s a brief description of why you do ministry the way you do it.  It’s not what you do in ministry.  That’s your vision and purpose.  It’s not how you do ministry.  That’s your strategy.  The philosophy of ministry states the why behind it all.

Why do you do what you do?  I think that’s a pertinent question for us to ask, no matter what flavor of ministry we may be involved in.  Why do we do it.  The answer to that question can help you become more effective in your ministry role, as well as more passionate, more organized and more  intentional.

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Memorize The Sermon On The Mount – Week 12

Moving right along in our memorization of the Sermon on the Mount.

This passage is a bit less poignant in my life.  I’ve never had to take anyone to court, or been taken to court.  It might happen someday, and so this passage will be good to have in my mind to draw on.

The passage for this week is Matthew 5:25-26.

Matthew 5:25-26

Here’s a link to the passage at Bible Gateway.

Have you ever been taken to court?  Let me know in the comments.

 

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Going Paperless Can Be Easy!

I’ve been struggling for the last several months with the amount of paper I produce.

I’m not fanatically “green” or anything… although I firmly believe that we are called to be wise stewards with our planet and its resources.  But simply from a perspective of bulk, I produce a lot of paper.

Stack of Papers

I’ve been trying to move away from that somewhat.  I’ve started receiving bank and credit card statements via email rather than in a paper format.  But I still have the problem of where to store all this.  My file cabinet is full, and receiving a statement by email only to print it for filing is counterproductive.

What to do?

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How God Instills Margin When You May Not Even Know You Need It

One of the big buzzwords in my life recently is the word “margin”.

I hear it everywhere.  I read about it on blogs.  I was even handed a book recently on creating margin in my life.

I placed it on the shelf.  I’ll get to it soon.

Right.

A couple of weeks ago, I hurt my lower back.  I was making the bed, and I just twisted wrong or stretched too far.

X Ray Displaying Lower Back Pain

That should teach me to make the bed…

I suffered in pain for a few days with no improvement, so I went to our local chiropractor.

I used to be that guy who made fun of people who went to the chiropractor.  Not so much anymore.

He looked at my back, made a few adjustments, and told me that my spine was about a mile out of line.  He asked me what I’d been doing.  I just made the bed!

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Memorize The Sermon On The Mount – Week 11

This week’s passage seems pretty applicable for Easter.  These verses speak on reconciliation.  And that’s what Easter is all about: Christ reconciling us to himself.

Pretty cool how that worked out.

The passage for this week is Matthew 5:23-24.

Matthew 5:23-24

Here’s a link to the passage at Bible Gateway.

How are you doing with this?  Let me know in the comments.

 

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Book Review – Dragons: Legends And Lore Of Dinosaurs

Dragons: Legends And Lore Of DinosaursLegends of dragons have always fascinated me.  As a kid, I read dozens of books about dragons, some fictional, others reportedly true.  And I loved every word.

My passion for early earth history, as recorded in Genesis, has lead me to many stories and reports of man encountering these incredible creatures.  This makes sense from a young earth point of view, because God created most of the dinosaurs on Day Six, along with the rest of the land animals. Of course, aquatic dinosaurs would have been created on Day Five…

But the word “dinosaur” wasn’t coined until 1841 by Sir Richard Owen.  What were these creatures called before the word dinosaur was invented?

Dragons.

Master Books has put together an incredible summary of dragons in many different cultures around the world, called Dragons:  Legends and Lore of Dinosaurs.  Piecing together eyewitness accounts and multi-cultural stories, along with many other evidences, they’ve created an extremely interesting account.

Dragons are found in dozens of cultures around the world.  They are mentioned in many ancient texts, including more than two dozen references in the Bible alone.

Along with this evidence, there are many archaeological finds that have dragons depicted on them.

How did so many diverse societies develop such similar creatures.  Mythology isn’t enough of an answer.  There had to be something more.  That these people saw such creatures is the only possible explanation.

I’ve read much of the information and stories presented in Dragons:  Legends and Lore of Dinosaurs before.  However, there were a few places where I read something new.

Dragons:  Legends and Lore of Dinosaurs kept me fascinated the entire time I perused it.  It will make an excellent resource to keep on my shelf with the rest of my creation materials.

This book is incredibly interesting.  I suggest you read it today!

If you are interested in reading Dragons: Legends And Lore Of Dinosaurs, you can purchase it at Amazon.com.

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from New Leaf Press/Master Books as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Also, some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links”. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.“

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The Battle: Rise Of Darkness

Our church is performing a pretty extensive evangelistic drama this week.

It’s called The Battle:  Rise of Darkness.  And it’s incredibly bold and creates and atmosphere where people are faced with the reality of life, death and eternity.

The Battle: Rise Of Darkness

Here’s the concept:  The Battle has several scenarios.  In each of these scenes, someone dies.  Sometimes it’s several people that die.  All of a sudden, they are in the presence of Christ, and whether they enter heaven or are cast into hell depends on how they lived their life.

With several scenes portraying different tragedies, this drama is a major dose of the spiritual reality that we often ignore.  Some of the include a car accident, a gang fight, a robbery gone bad, an earthquake, a plane crash, and a young child who gets a hold of a gun.

Like I said, it’s pretty intense.