Month June 2011

NorCal, SoCal, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Alberta!

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

I originally posted this on the Youthmark blog; feel free to visit there for easy access to all of our team blogs...

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As one church (Faith, Costa Rica) completed their mission trip, 10 other churches were launching theirs (We have 11 places being served this week)!

On Friday, June 24, two churches (Westwood Baptist and Highline Christian) joined Youthmark’s Kirk Petersen in Rathdrum, Idaho for a Youthmark “Launch.” This 15 hour Pep Rally of sorts provides us the opportunity to do some last minute training (reminders of what we’ve practiced through the spring) and gives us the chance to rally the troops as they head into a week of service and evangelism in a specific region.  Kirk reports that the two churches did very well and that they took advantage of every opportunity to soak in some last minute teaching and practice.

Westwood Baptist (Olympia, WA) will be serving in two communities in Alberta Canada.

Highline Christian (Burien, WA) is serving in Plains, Montana.

Simultaneously to the Idaho launch, I (Brian) had the privilege of leading a launch down south in Redding, California for four other churches joining us for the launch. We worshipped really well together (thanks Wes, Joshua and Caleb) as we were hosted by Westside Church of Redding (a Youthmark church that is going on a trip late in the summer). This group of approximately 65 had a great time being stretched as they had to get out of their comfort zone right away through the games and activities we provide during the launch.

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Pine Valley Community Church (Pine Valley, CA) is headed to Bangor, CA.

Westminster Presbyterian (Escondido) is headed to Fort Jones, CA (Scott Valley).

Joining Westminster Pres in Scott Valley is Warren Baptist (Warren, OR).

Canby Alliance (Canby, OR) is serving in French Gulch, CA.

In addition to these churches who participated in a launch we have three other churches out this week. Because of locations and such, these teams didn’t do our launches, but we trust that they are off to a great start.

Elim Evangelical Free (Puyallup, WA) is serving this week in Rockaway Beach, OR.

Bookcliff Baptist (Grand Junction, CO) is serving in an inner-city/suburb hybrid model mission in Burbank and Castaic, CA.

Cornerstone* (Covington, WA) is serving in the eastern part of their state, in Sprangle, WA.

Northwest Bible Church* (Spring, TX) is serving in both Kamiah and Riggins, ID.

One really cool side-note: Northwest Bible of Texas is a third-year Youthmark team, they have adopted Riggins and Kamiah as “their towns” and the after serving in both places last year (and all three years to Riggins) they have sent an intern for the entire summer to Riggins. I invite you to pray for Stephen Curto and follow his blog here. (it’s been a great journey for his thus far, this week is going to be such an encouragement to him).

As always, I invite you to go to the individual team blogs and pray through the listed requests. It’s so exciting to see what God does through prayer!

Grace,

Brian

*Churches that trained through Youthmark, but already had chosen location.

Get Over Your Evangephobia!

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Question: Why do you go on mission trips? Is evangelism a major in the equation or an occasional bi-product? Do you and your youth have evangephobia? I hope you’ll take steps toward sharing your faith, a free resource is being offered by Dare-2-Share on Tuesday, June 28 (described below).

I recently returned from a short-term mission with a Youthmark Mission Venture team to Costa Rica. In our short-history at Youthmark we have been blessed to have been in many rural setting in the US (including Alaska and Hawaii) and Canada. Last year we had a large team in Mexico, but this Costa Rica trip marked what I would say was our first true “international mission.”

We loved serving (and serving with) the Costa Rican people. However, our goal with Youthmark has never been to just serve, we long to see service and evangelism fit together like me and a Venti coffee! Well, God provided those opportunities in unique ways. Though a language barrier existed, the barrier for some of our students far-surpassed language. Though they were raised in the church, some had never shared their faith.  Praise God, this Costa Rican experience will, I hope, fuel their future of sharing Christ-crucified and Mission51 (the 51 weeks of the year beyond this mission) will take-off!

As you examine your ministry, your group or perhaps even your church; is there a heart for evangelism that is followed by feet ready to swiftly move so that hands can be used for service and mouths may be used for witness? This is, after all, our call! Jesus has left us here (on earth) to share his story!

My friends at Dare-2-Share are once again doing a one-hour webinar titled, “Evangephobia” on Tuesday, June 28 at Noon eastern, 9:00 AM pacific. I went through the first one and having been through many D2S events, this one-hour event is well worth your time.  Greg Stier will give you some very practical tools for your church, group and self!

I believe God has called us to “all nations” (including Costa Rica), however, our first calling (according to Scripture) is our “Jerusalem.” I believe every believer is called to reach our own neighborhood with the good news!  I hope you’ll consider checking out the webinar (go to Dare2share.org and pre-register, it’s free) and even better, I pray that we’ll see our neighborhoods as our mission field!

Organizations like Youthmark, Dare2Share and a few others are making a concerted effort to see the Great Commission become the MAJOR focus for all churches (and believers for that matter). If you’ve got the phobia, get trained, get reliant and by the power of the Spirit, get going!

Grace,
Brian

CONTEST: WAIT Toddler

Brian Aaby 8 Comments

It’s been too long since we’ve done a contest. And, since it’s Father’s Day weekend, let’s go ahead and do something in the genre of family… so, here ya go…

Perhaps you’re new to one of these WAIT contests. WAIT stands for “What Am I Thinking?”  It essentially is your opportunity to give a caption, thought or quote(s) for the picture below.  Submit yours through the comment and don’t worry if your comment doesn’t appear right away, I need to approve many whom haven’t commented ever (or in a long time).

Best ones will make the “in the running section” and then I’ll select the champion from among those. The winner, this time, will receive a 2011 YMV t-shirt.

Have fun.

What Am I Thinking?

Grace,
Brian

*************** IN THE RUNNING **************

I’ve got a fully loaded diaper and I’m not afraid to use it!! ~Kate West

So we heard you were hungry.~D DeVries

Are you guys from the CDC? Because I have some questions about my diaper smells. ~Richard Judd

I see they called in the squat team. ~the wifey

“Well, if I wore pants I guess you could say I’ve been caught with my pants down.” ~Jan A.

****************** The Winner **********************

Great entries!

I’ve got a fully loaded diaper and I’m not afraid to use it!! ~Kate West

Congrats Kate, facebook me a private message with your mailing address and t-shirt size and I’ll send the prize!

SMS: Prime Time for Youth Leader Recruitment

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“I just don’t have any leaders!”

Another downtrodden phone call from a Youth Pastor who is frustrated by the lack of adult leaders helping him with the student ministries. I wish these phone calls, emails and conversations weren’t so common. In previous Student Ministry Stuff (SMS) posts I have written about the Pied Piper youth pastor, some are this way by choice (and by personality) and some are Pipers simply because they aren’t good at and/or don’t know how to recruit leaders. My hope with this post is to help youth pastors see that the summer is prime-time for leader recruitment.

As you scope the landscape of your summer calendar you probably see a shift from programs to events; a move away from mid-week program to more fun/relational events that augment the camps, retreats and mission trips. It is because of the typical summer schedule that I see ideal opportunities to recruit, train and inspire your new teammates!  Here are a few things I would suggest.

  1. Mission Specific. The typical youth mission trip has elements that need expertise. Building projects, painting projects, landscaping, children’s ministry emphasis or perhaps your trip brings safety concerns. Your current “youth staff” may not include a construction worker, handy-person, landscaper or that gal who is just so good with the little kids. Every trip could use a nurse, doctor or EMT to help answer the “safety” concerns.  Of course, you want these gifts being used for the mission, but your recruitment of these adults needs to be way more strategic than just their gifts being used for this trip! The reality is, your students will end up doing the recruitment for you! Students are infectious and desperate for adults to pour into their lives. These “mission specific” recruits will fall deeply in love with the students in a mission-intensive setting.
  2. Camp Created. Our “Bus Caravan” (a 10 day, mobile camp to a state park or two) provided the ideal recruitment ground for adult leadership to “check out” what it was like to be a Youth Leader. Like the above mission specific I recruited specific helps for our summer camp in the hopes they would stick far-beyond the one week camp. There were a couple families who owned boats, one who had a camper and several leaders who could grill with the best of them. Though these adults were happy to help, they had no idea they would get hooked on students. Again, the students and their willingness to invite an adult to speak into their lives became the enticement. The boat driver turned into an ear for the lonely student to feel needed (as simple as holding the flag). The Lunch-lady eventually was holding an accountability time with a couple gals while they chopped up the carrot sticks and best of all, these one-week helpers became full-year small group leaders.
  3. Event Invite. I know some adults who love to hunt and fish. I don’t. In addition, I know that some of these adults would make excellent youth leaders. Why not build an event around them and their area of expertise. Let him or her know that they are meeting a need you cannot. A gal whose family owns a great second home may just be willing to host the gals-getaway and you may just end up recruiting your next wonderful woman leader! How about those adults who have a social justice heart and inroad, what would it look like for you to recruit them to champion their cause at a summer BBQ?

I could go on and on with simple ideas, but the key to all of these items comes back to the thing we always need to come back to–RELATIONSHIPS! In order to recruit great volunteers you need to invest in relationship with these potential leaders. Youth ministry is NOT just about the youth. In order to have a great ministry, you need to build a great team through the power of God. Keep in mind, it isn’t just about inviting the potential leader to an event, camp or mission, it’s about following up (first by praying all the way through the process) and making the ask after the specific ministry setting you invited them to. When following up and making the ask:

  • Thank them for their service
  • Bless them with a small gift
  • Affirm them for his/her gifts (be specific in what you saw/heard)
  • Invite them to something greater
  • Be realistic in your ask (not all are called to be at Sunday School, attending mid-week and in a core-group), make your ask a specific ask.
  • Train them!

My hope is that this post gives you some sort of spark for your recruitment mindset. You need a team, why not make this summer your time to form that group of leaders?

Grace,
Brian

U2 and Date Night!

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

A little over a week ago I got to go on a sweet date with Elisabeth,  a specific date that was 1o years in the making!

About a decade ago I was asked the question “if you could pick two concerts to go to of any living performers/bands, which shows would you choose?”

Because Milli Vanilli and Vanilla Ice were both on their way out, I couldn’t choose them (I tease), I said, “I’d go to James Taylor and U2.”

About eights years ago, while living in Phoenix, Elisabeth and I got to go to an outdoor show of James Taylor. It was great! It was his last show of that tour and during the intermission of the show, he chose to stay on stage and take requests from the audience (4000+) while the band all left the stage for the scheduled break.  All told, he probably played for two or two and a half hours!

In November of 2009 I got the inside track on U2 coming to Seattle for their 360 Tour. Well, even though we didn’t have the cash to really afford to go, I still purchased four seats, knowing that we could sell the other two to someone (or all 4 if the financial need arose)! We were supposed to go last June (2010), but Bono, the lead singer, broke his back (and the concert was delayed a year).  Well, last week that year delay ended and Elisabeth and I (along with Joe and Rachel Poppino) went to the show! And what a show it was! U2 played for over two and half hours! They played most of the songs I had hoped for (would have loved “40”, but oh well). The stage, lighting and effects were amazing as well! And to top it all off, it was about 80 degrees outside as the concert began, truly “A Beautiful Day!”

It was a great night with a great date! And the fulfillment of a question I was asked 10 years ago! Quick, someone ask me what two sporting events would I most like to see (I need to do something over the next 10 years, right?).

Grace,
Brian

Not Bad Luck… Bad Design

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We’ve been in our house for nearly seven years. The house has been a wonderful blessing to our family. A few years into our time here we invested in (or were we gifted? I can’t remember) a brand new washer and dryer set. Namely because our old dryer just wasn’t doing well. It would routinely take two-hours to dry a load of clothes.

The new washer did really well, but to be honest, we were never impressed with the new dryer. Sure, it looks good and had a great Consumer Reports rating. But, it was still taking 75-90 minutes minimum to dry a load.  We just figured we had bad luck when it came to our dryers…Well, it went from okay to worse in the last year. The 75-90 minutes became 90-120 minutes, but what was really bad was the smell. It was evident that the heating element was just too hot! It smelled like something was about to catch fire.

Nervous that we may just burn down the house we changed our heat-setting to medium for all loads (which only increased the amount of time it took to do a load). But even on medium we eventually began to smell that burning smell again.

Finally, about a week ago I had my mechanically-minded friend Walt over to help me figure out exactly what was wrong. I had done the general things that had come to mind (like vacuuming out the hose-vent-thing, etc.). I knew it was time to get into the machine and see what was happening. Walt and I took the backing off. WOW! The entire inside was full of lint (even on top of the drum was about one inch of dry lint). The venting (which I had vacuumed out probably six months prior) was pretty full as well (with wet lint… nasty!). After cleaning out everything and putting it back together we went to check the venting outside the house to make sure the venting to the outside was not the issue.

The stuff next to the heating element was almost charcoal.

BAM! We found the problem, but exactly where in the approximate 25 foot stretch of venting was the blockage? We had to go CSI on the matter and went under the house. The only time I ever go in the crawl space is to get my Christmas boxes out in December and return them a month later. Well, it was Christmas in June and we found the presents! It came in the form of discovering the UPHILL route our dryer vent-air must take to get out of the house. Who designed this system? Not only does the vent angle up at about a 3% grade, when it gets to the foundation on the back side of our house it makes a 90 degree upward turn to go that last foot before making another 90 degree turn to go out of the house (again, who designed this system).

I figured there must be some sopping wet lint blocking the vent somewhere. Well, what we discovered was that it wasn’t about the lint, it was the approximate four gallon flood we were about to encounter when we took the venting pipes apart. Our venting was essentially a pea trap.

My guess is that our old dryer had the same issue and that the water has been trapped for years, perhaps there was a little clearance when we bought the house, but it has likely been blocked for years!

With all the water out and the house not burned down, we are now experiencing dryer loads that, on average, are taking less than 45 minutes!  I can’t wait to see the savings on our electric bill!  We’re thankful to Walt, thankful for God’s protection and thankful that it’s now fun to do laundry again (okay, that last part was a stretch).

Grace,

Brian

Now, Not Just Later!

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“I don’t want to be a pirate!”

Seinfeld is one of my favorite TV shows. In one episode Jerry inadvertently volunteered to wear a Puffy-Shirt on the Today show. Several people commented that he looked like a Pirate (thus the quote above). In a different episode Kramer had ousted all of Jerry’s shoes and all that remained were some Cowbooy boots causing Jerry to say…

“I don’t want to be a Cowboy”

Like Jerry, many of us have discovered what we don’t want to be/do. Too often, it seems, the discovery comes after years and years of doing it. What if we could find out sooner than later?

One of the appeal points for me about Adelphia Bible School is that it affords the students, at an early point and an affordable price, the opportunity to discover who/what they want to become. The Cohort Program Adelphia is starting will give students the opportunity to discover at a young age (many at age 18 or 19) some things that they may not discover until they’ve paid upwards of $100k in school.

Besides a fantastic line-up of teachers (each week they bring in a top notch speaker), the school is really geared to give students not just a foundation for later, but tools to live out his/her faith now and to discover calling, gifts, skills and possible career field NOW, not just later.

The Cohort Program will specifically give students that exploration. Upon acceptance to Adelphia the students will be asked to consider being a part of a Cohort. In the Cohorts the students will meet with best-practice partners in a specific field he or she is thinking about pursuing.

Let me give you a couple specific examples: “Joe” (protecting the guilty) is thinking about being a Youth Pastor. He is just one-class short of his Associates degree. This next year, Joe is going to enter the “Youth Ministry Cohort” and serve his local church through a formal (apprenticeship) or informal internship. In addition, he hopes to work 12-18 hours a week at a local business in order to make some money and be a missionary in the workforce and still have time to pour into his students! Through the Cohort he will get training outside his specific church from best-practice Youth Pastors and also get training in the internship from his own Youth Pastor.

“Sarah” is thinking that she’ll go into teaching after she completes a bachelors degree. However, she really wants to be a strong Christian in any field God may call her to. Sarah is going to sign up for the “Career Workforce” Cohort where she’ll be exposed to many different community leaders who hold secular career positions and see their places of employment as a mission field. Sarah plans on working 20-30 hours a week just 10 minutes away from the school.

Both of these scenarios are COMPLETELY possible because of Adelphia’s unique approach. Students will have interactive community classes each morning (9-12) and then have every afternoon and several evenings “off” so they can do any/all of the following:

  1. Intern/Apprentice  in a local church/parachurch (paid and unpaid positions)
  2. Work at local business and earn valuable income
  3. Classes at a local community college, university or online to get ahead on even more education
The Cohort experience gives students the opportunity to discover now the possibility of a vocational ministry career and how to be a missionary in any setting! Practical skills not just head-knowledge! Cohorts are being developed for each of the following and more to come: Student Ministry, Children/Family Ministry, Missions/Church Planting, Worship/Music Ministry and Career Workforce.
I hope you’ll pass on the Adelphia site for young adults to check out! Don’t hesitate to ask me questions about it as well!
Grace,
Brian

SMS: $5 and 50-Minute Ideas For Summer

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

Sun is out (well, at least I assume the sun is shining somewhere outside the Pacific Northwest) and summer has unofficially begun. Youth Leaders and students everywhere are wondering what to do. Today’s Student Ministry Stuff (SMS) is a simple list of affordable  and time-sensitive ideas for those of you involved in Student Ministry.

Camps, missions, retreats, festivals and many other events are VERY expensive and time consuming. Sure, many times these spendy get-aways produce some great growth and fruit, but I am also a firm believer in affordable fruit as well! The reality is relationships are the key factor.  Students, staff, leaders and parents will get what you’re giving in the context of relationship, regardless of the setting and length of time.

Here are some five $5 and mostly 50-minute ideas you can use to build into these relationships…

  • $5 Feet… Subway (and other sub shops) customizes and allows for each side of the sandwich to have it’s own toppings. Grab that footlong and walk along a footpath… Walk, talk and chow.
  • Balloon Blessings… Raid the Sunday School supply room for some construction paper, get a student or two, head to a Party City type store and get three $1 helium balloons and three candy bars to tie to the end and bless three leaders (or other students) with notes of encouragement and the delivered balloon and candy treat. Surprise them with an anonymous blessing by doing so when you know the recipient is not home.
  • Late Night Appetizers and Answers… Many “trendy” restaurants offer half-price appetizers during their happy hours (often late afternoon and then after 9 p.m.). Instead of doing the “fast food” thing, shoot an email to a couple students asking them to join you at an Applebees (or something similar) for “Appetizers and Answers.”  Tell them they need to come with three questions each about you, God or the Christian life.  For less than $5 total you can share some Nachos and engage in a wonderful faith-discussion!
  • Major in the Minors (this is one exception to the 50 minute suggestion)… This one may cost $5 each instead of $5 total, but chances are you live within an hour or two of a minor league baseball stadium. For a fraction of the cost of the big-leagues you can have a wonderful evening with students and have 9-innnings of big-time discussion. These ball players are young and excited about their hopes and dreams of making it to the next level. An easy discussion question for a minor-league game would be about hopes and dreams and how God is preparing the student, staff member or parent for “what’s next.”
  • iBlessing and Student Ownership… Get five students together for an hour and give them the assignment to pick any $.99 song on iTunes.  Give them 10 minutes to pick their song and then the next 40 minutes to write a Bible-study built around the theme of that song.  Take the next 5 weeks for a summer Bible-study or Sunday school class for these students to lead the discussion about the song, the devotional and the practical applications flowing out of the Bible study on these themes.
Hope these ideas plant some seeds for some ideas you can use this summer within your sphere of influence.  These ideas and many others are part of book project for Youthmark. Sometimes we need to be reminded that keeping it simple is sometimes the best option!  I hope your simple and complex plans all lead to deeper relationships in your circles and the end result is God glorified and the Kingdom multiplied!  Mission51!
Grace,
Brian