Stoked About These Soon-To-Be-Relased Books

December 8, 2012December 10, 2012Brian Aaby Leave a comment

Ahh! The sense of anticipation is rising!

Within the next day or two I’ll have the Leader Guide. And within a few weeks we’ll have the new Mission Prep Workbook in stock!

Merry Christmas to Youthmark!

I’ll post about about this soon, but no matter what type of a mission trip you and your group go on, you should consider training the group for more than just a mission trip! Our line of Mission Prep, on trip and follow-up guides will help your group know that Mission is much more than a trip! Mission51!

Grace,

Brian

What Is Your Mission…Trip?

November 20, 2012November 20, 2012Brian Aaby 1 Comment

Are most mission trips actual mission trips or are they service trips, road trips or simply tourism-plus trips?

Is it word-confusion? Maybe it’s just a matter of semantics?

Perhaps it’s a “po-tay-toe or po-tah-toe” deal?

Mission is certainly not a faith-specific word, however, I do believe the original mission Jesus called the first-century believers to was certainly a mission of faith-making!

Plain and simple: I believe that a mission trip should, primarily, be for the purpose of disciple-making.

Before I am dismissed as a Bible-thumping, evangelism-freak, please understand that I firmly believe that we must show the character qualities of Jesus as we share the words of Jesus (especially as they relate to eternal life). A mission trip should have the end-game or ultimate goal of more people trusting Jesus for salvation.

This does not mean that every trip will be evangelistic in nature, however, I do believe a bridge to the great commission should be able to be made, explained and trained! Unfortunately, I get the sense that very few mission trip participants are making the connection (to the eternal) or receiving training.

Youthmark distributed Pray21 books to all participants at the National Youth Workers Convention (NYWC) and did a giveaway of an iPad mini at the Verge booth. In the few hours I spent at Verge I asked any/all who came by to register for the iPad a few missions oriented questions. Youth Leaders were very quick to give the answer to the “where do you go?” and “what they did” but only a couple were able to answer “how did you prepare the students?” I see this as a missed opportunity!

Service based Mission Trips are not my enemy, I’ve done them, enjoyed them and have seen great outcomes. But I believe they become truly missional when we make the tie to the evangelism/discipleship that will take place because of our service. For instance, we took a week to prepare a camp (physically) for a summer of hosting camps. We painted cabins, deep cleaned bathrooms, raked grass clippings and prayed over nearly every foot of the camp knowing that we were preparing the harvest field. In our prep and debrief of the daily duties we were able to motivate our group because of the hope of the eternal life-change that would take place on those grounds. Our service-sacrifice freed up others for the relational-investment they would make in the lives of students all summer. Even though we knew we were not likely going to have evangelism opportunities, we trained students in evangelism so they could relate to and pray for those who would have the opportunity at that camp. But our evangelism training leading into the trip had much more to do with Mission51- the 51 weeks of life outside the one-week trip! Our primary mission is not the trip, it’s our own campus, club, community and church!

Where is your mission… trip? Are you failing to connect the social justice acts you do with the eternal justification Jesus makes available for us?

Continue to do great things for Jesus, but make the connection to (and tell of) the great things He said as well! As recipients of His great grace, let’s look to share that message with all!

Grace,

Brian

P.S. In perusing the mission trips available at NYWC I was pleasantly surprised that a few were focused on more that just the trip and had a strong evangelism connection. I’d invite you to check out Verge and Youth Missions International as two of my favorites!

Five Youth Pastor What Ifs

November 14, 2012November 14, 2012Brian Aaby 1 Comment

I was a youth pastor for 16 years and for the past four years I’ve continued to work with hundreds of youth pastors through Youthmark and networking. All told, I’m two decades into this youth ministry adventure. My outlook on the student ministry culture certainly took on different perspectives during these years. From the rookie years to the “seasoned veteran” years (which, in youth ministry, takes place around your late 20’s), I have consistently looked back and wondered, “what if?”

I thought I’d jot a few of these “what ifs” down, perhaps just to encourage others. Maybe I’ll come back to some more “what ifs” later, but here are five that stand out to me right now.

1. What if I would have set a better example of peer-to-peer evangelism instead of using pastor-to-youth as my evangelism excuse? [I likely would have discovered that students have the same insecurities and fears I had and I would have begun engaging in and then training others for real-life, relational (with words) evangelism earlier].

2. What if I would have known at an earlier stage that “youth ministry” is actually student, parent, family, peer and church ministry? [I certainly would have had better volunteerism, more parent support and I likely would have felt more respected by the adults in the church rather than alienating others with the “I must prove myself to them” attitude I think I adopted].

3. What if I would have known that putting in more hours, working more days and trying to please as many as possible would NOT impress anyone other than myself? [I would have likely had a better relationship with those in authority over me instead of secretly wishing that they all would notice the hours, days and efforts so that I’d get a raise].

4. What if I would have fallen in love with coffee earlier in my youth pastorate? [I’d likely be dead from caffeine overdose… or more people would know Jesus, as the coffee shop has become one of my primary evangelism outlets]

5. What if I recruited adults to pray with our students instead of just praying for our students? [Disclaimer: I had many adults involved with our teens… but not nearly enough! This honestly is my #1 “what if?” And here is my answer: I believe that we’d see the national statistics of up to 85% of students leaving the church flipped. I believe that we’d see students and adults begin to understand the truth of 1 Corinthians 12–we are one body, many parts and all the parts are needed and I believe we’d see MANY more adults not intimidated by the teen population and vice-versa. I believe that our Sunday morning experience would look and feel way more familial and way more welcoming!]

Honestly, most of this ties into that last one. I wish I would have had someone investing in me at a deeper level. What if someone was praying with me and not just for me? I wish something like Pray21 would have been around 15, even 10 years ago. At the risk of touting product over blog content, I want to urge folks to check this thing out. Team students up with caring adults (even get the mentor for pay the $10 or so for both books) and get this praying with youth thing started!

What if?

Grace,
Brian

Don’t be THAT church…

October 25, 2012Brian Aaby Leave a comment

Whether an introvert or an extrovert you will likely agree that ultimately you don’t like the longterm feeling of being alone. Even if you’re not energized by crowds of people, time with individuals, especially specific people, can renew your drive.

Is your church a church where renewal takes place? Are you part of a church where introverts and extroverts alike walk away liked?

On a recent trip to the New England states I had the opportunity to speak a number of times to Youth Leaders in these great Northeast states. Though I love speaking with and to Youth Leaders my favorite speaking engagement was with the students, parents and leadership in Rutland, Vermont. Calvary Bible is a church that gets it, not THAT church that doesn’t.

My friend Rob Townshend, had me share with his flock about Mission51. They get it. But they get so much more. This church is going above and beyond and setting an example that I believe can serve as a wake up to anyone attending a church and a word of encouragement to all congregations.

CBC recently sent an invitation to all the Pastors and spouses of Bible-believing churches in Rutland County. The invitation was for a fancy-shmancy catered dinner they hosted at their church. All told, 17 couples attended this unity-inducing event. 17 couples received love, attention and thanks for loving and showing attention to the people of Rutland County. CBC paid the bill, the pastors were shown the love and Jesus received the glory!

Unfortunately a couple of the Pastors at this dinner serve at THAT church. THAT church that doesn’t seem to get it. In talking to Rob, he passed on to me what he (unfortunately) heard from a couple of the Pastors. This was a comment that both crushed me and awakened me:

“Thank you so much for this gift. You’ll likely be the only ones who recognize and honor us during Pastor Appreciation month.”

I pray that I am never part of THAT church. I was a Pastor for 16 years, I have felt alone as a Pastor but can’t imagine what it would be like in rural Vermont. In an area that feels very northwest like–unchurched, I have to believe the loneliness that many of these pastor must feel is sure to be overwhelming at times. I love what Calvary Bible Church did for these co-laborers. And I love that the leadership did this because this is what is modeled to them by their own church! They’re becoming a community that reflects Acts 2:42-47.

I am no longer serving as a vocational Pastor. I am a member, congregant and lay leader. I pray that our Pastors feel appreciated, loved and thanked. But not because it is October (and Pastors appreciation month), but because it is Biblical and truly true. I love my church, our congregants and leaders alike! My prayer is that we are becoming an Acts 2:42-47 community and that as a natural, spiritual progression, God will add DAILY to the numbers being saved!

I don’t want to be THAT church. As far as it depends upon me (and hopefully as far as it depends on the rest of Faith Church), I will make sure that our pastors are recognized, thanked and honored.

How about you?

Grace,
Brian

Tales From The Field: Student Stories

October 20, 2012October 22, 2012Brian Aaby Leave a comment

This next spring Youthmark will be hosting our fifth season of “Mission51 Retreats.” Though we had been known for our Mission Ventures, the area of our ministry that has always scored the highest points has been our Mission51 Retreats and our curriculum.

Like our curriculum, each Mission51 Retreat has had a different theme and creative teaching/worship elements. This year we are making our biggest leap and risking in a brand new way and I’D LIKE YOUR HELP!

Can you do one (or more) of the following?

Tell a story of a student you know who is faithful to sharing Christ in his/her Mission51 Field (the 51 weeks outside of the mission)
Have a student write (email) in his/her story of building relationship/sharing Christ at a peer level at home.
Shoot (vide) a 1-2 minute (highest rez possible) of a teen sharing his or her story of being able to build relationship and share Jesus.*

Of course, you, as a youth leader, may have some stories of your own, I am really interested in hearing your stories of peer-level sharing (not just opportunities you had with teens).

Please send emails, videos and/or video links to info@youthmark.com.

-OR- simply comment here on the blog “I have one” and I’ll contact you (by commenting I, internally, have access to your email and can contact you).

We want to use these stories and videos as part of our Mission51 Retreat!

I can’t wait to reveal the theme and sneak in a few hints as to what will take place this year… stay tuned!

Grace,

Brian

*If doing video we need video permissions given, anyone 18 or older can say “I ______ give permission for Youthmark to use this video for promotion and training purposes”. If student is under 18, get a video of his/her parent giving permission.

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: Pray21 The Re-Release!

October 13, 2012Brian Aaby Leave a comment

This is very, very exciting!

Youthmark has moved into the Publishing Realm!

Over the last few years I’ve been honored to be published by Spire-Resources, well, as of tonight, Youthmark officially moved into the publishing market with the official release of Pray21.

Chair drop (freebie) at the NYWC

Youthmark has given away close to 2000 copies of this book TONIGHT at the Youth Specialties National Youth Workers Convention (NYWC).

As I stated earlier, this is very exciting because this title fits EXACTLY in line with my blogpost about Trusting Teens. I believe this book will do much much in our endeavor to see students lead the cause of Christ. But here’s the equation I want to introduce:

WITH > FOR

That is, WITH is greater than for.

Praying WITH Youth will change your church. Your community. Our culture.

Students are ready to lead the cause of Christ. But they need the prayers, they need the encouragement. They need the mentoring of adults. They need to be trusted to lead and the humility to be led by a trusted mentor! Prayer will fuel this movement! Student Led, Adult Mentored Ministry!

It starts by getting congregations to believe in teens enough to pray not just for, but WITH students!

Check it out at Pray21.com and get your youth group, school or club involved. Pray WITH Youth!

Grace,
Brian

Making Tents and How You Can Help!

October 2, 2012October 2, 2012Brian Aaby Leave a comment

In prayer, by faith, we believe God is moving and using Youthmark and we’d love for you to consider this unique way of partnering (SPOILER ALERT: NO we’re not looking for you to write a support check)…

When we launched Youthmark in 2008 we had several people ask if they could support us (financially), but Elisabeth and I really wanted to explore what it would look like to do Youthmark as a ministry/business. Though Youthmark is certainly missional, we didn’t see ourselves as vocational missionaries. We simply asked for those making the offers to support other missions/ministries but implored them to pray for us!

Well, four plus years in and though we’re making changes, we’re still saying the same thing! We are moving toward producing other resources for the student ministry field. By faith we believe this is what God has called us to do, but it is risky to leave the “known” and explore the unknown.

As we continue to “make tents” (1 Cor. 18:1-3), we are confident that God will continue to provide for us. Besides creating resources, I believe there is one other arena that God will use to provide for us that also fits within my gift and passion set: Teaching. Training. Inspiring.

I love speaking, training and inspiring people for a life of mission here, there and anywhere. I believe it is my calling to train people (students, leaders, parents, etc.) in everyday opportunities we have to be used for the cause of Christ (Mission51).

If you are at a church, school or parachurch and looking for someone to come in speak and/or help create an event and experience where training and inspiration can be provided I’d love for you to consider partnering with me/us! I “play well with others” in that I can simply be a speaker/trainer for you, but I REALLY love the entire process where we dream, scheme, plot, plan and especially pray for the right direction for these events!

I said “us” above, because the under-discovered talent in the Aaby family is Elisabeth. She is such a gifted speaker, I’d love to see God use her to bless your ministries as well… Elisabeth is at her best speaking to women (youth, young adults, moms and at women Bible studies, etc.).

You can click here to see what sort of events I typically speak at and specifically what things have been on the calendar in 2012.

We prayerfully consider all opportunities and simply hope the asking party has done the same as they consider a budget for travel and honorarium. We want to work with our partners to develop a budget that honors God and each other!

Shoot me an email (brian at youthmark dot com), Tweet, Facebook message or even comment your interest and I’ll be happy to follow up with you. We can talk dates, times, desires, etc. as we begin the conversation!

We’d love your prayers as we make this transition in our lives and as God develops these new partnerships!

Grace,
Brian

BRIANAABY.COM

Some thoughts about: God, family, ministry & coffee.

Category Mission51

Stoked About These Soon-To-Be-Relased Books

What Is Your Mission…Trip?

Five Youth Pastor What Ifs

Don’t be THAT church…

Tales From The Field: Student Stories

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: Pray21 The Re-Release!

Making Tents and How You Can Help!