Category Random/Rant

600 Club!

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

Blog post #600!

A lot has happened in the last 2 and half years, I am happy to say that a lot of my life (and Youthmark’s life) has been recorded in this online journal format.

Just a fun little survey to find out what you like best about the blog… So, if there is anything you’re particularly fond of, pick it (multiple selections are possible).

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you continue to stop by! Here’s to the next 600 posts.

Grace,
Brian

The Same Holy Spirit Today!

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

Technology today is pretty amazing.  Can you imagine what it would have been like to have had a webcast/podcast of the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2)?  Well, this evening while at Starbucks I decided to log on to the Harvest Seattle webcast. I was unfortunately out of town most of the weekend speaking at other events, so I was not able to attend the festival.

I am somewhat of a skeptic (in general) but especially can be skeptical of “mass salvation.” However, as I sit and finish the writing of this next book, Anywhere, which studies the book of Acts, I read over and over again and consequently write over and over again about the salvation of lost souls.  Often times these moments of souls being saved happened in mass!

Tonight, while I listened (and sort of watched) Greg Laurie share the great news of Jesus, I was reminded that the same Holy Spirit that was present in early Acts and saved literally thousands in a single Peter sermon is the same Holy Spirit that can save literally thousands in Seattle tonight!

As I watch these souls move from the seats to the ground floor of Key Arena I trust that God is moving.  I believe He has performed another miracle and I believe that one of the most unchurched and God-hating areas in the USA just came a little more alive in Christ.  Former God haters became grace-lovers.  May these new believers understand that this was not just a one-weekend experience and get on the path of Mission51, the other 51 weekends (and weeks) of life outside of Harvest!

I am moved to tears as I think of salvation in Seattle!

Praising the Holy Spirit that He is present today, just as He was in the very book I write about right now!

Grace,
Brian

P.S. If you’re a friend who does not know about salvation and would like to know this grace, forgiveness and freedom you can have, please contact me (brian[at]youthmark[dot]com).

Three-For-Thursday: Get Candy

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

I returned home from Colorado and Costa Rica to a counter-top loaded with candy  containing bags and bowls.  The post-Halloween (eh-hem, I mean “Harvest Party”) sugar-fest; gotta love it.  In honor of the sweet-tooth I thought I’d take on my favorite candies to sneak confiscate in order to protect the little pearly-whites of my offspring. So, the three-for-thursday today is the top three candies I have found in the bowls this year.

  1. 3: Butterfingers: The beauty-of the fun size Butterfinger is that they are just the right size.  I used to love the full Butterfinger bar, but for some reason in adult-hood they’ve just become a little too much.  Too much crackling wafter, too much melting chocolate on my fingers and just a little too much ill-feeling after downing the full-bar.  But the bite-size version, mmm perfect.  The great news, my kids don’t like them, so it’s not even stealing!

  1. 2: Skittles: Are you one of those weirdo’s that eats your meals by consuming just one thing at a time?  When your plate is full of potatoes, meat, rolls and a steamed vegie, do you just do the greens, then complete all the potatoes, and then finally move on the meat?  I never understood this philosophy of eating.  I am a combo guy, a bite of meat, then one of the potatoes, right into a chomp on the steamed broccoli.  However, get me to the skittles and I become the weirdo!  Red is my least favorite, so I consume these first.  Then the yellow, moving onto the purple, then green and save the orange ones to the end, because after all, they are are the candy equivalent to a great steak (hmm?)… anyway, I like them best.


  1. 1: Snickers: Here’s a bar that I CAN eat the bigger version, but for the sake of the “watching my figure” status, I am so thankful that most of our neighbors are buying in and helping me by providing me, I mean, my kids with the fun-size snickers.  Snickers gives us the perfect blend of peanut, chocolate, caramel and “nougat’y” goodness.  They truly do satisfy… but I will not lie… I usually need at least 2 or  3 to feel a little more satisfied.


 

In honor of the candy-talk, thought I’d hook you up with one of my favorite Candy-comedy bits ever.  The first minute and half or so is really the crux of the candy-bit, but the whole thing is funny.  Get candy!

Grace,
Brian

SMS: Re-Thinking Missions

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

Let’s start with a fun question:

If you could go anywhere in the world on a mission trip, where would you want to go and why?

Australia?  Italy?  Scotland?  Costa Rica? Haiti? East Africa?  Russia?

The location list is endless. But which one came first to your mind?

My guess is that not one of us named our home town, our neighborhood, our campus, or our unsaved friend’s house.

Jesus said, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem (home town), and in all Judea (surrounding communities) and Samaria (similar territory, different culture), and to the ends of the earth (across the borders… all borders).”

Most are enamored with the uttermost, we want adventure, we like travel, we’re looking to serve Jesus with all our heart and we want other people groups to know and love Christ.  There is NOTHING wrong with any of these.

But what about our Jerusalem?  It’s very interesting that in the first full seven chapters of Acts we have not one written “witness” account outside of Jerusalem.  This means that the very men (the 11 remaining Apostles) Jesus trained emphasized local mission.  In essence the list Jesus gives in Acts 1:8 could be looked at as a priority list.

What if?

I believe a paradigm shift needs to take place.  One practical question Youth Leaders are asking (and being asked) right now is, “where are we going next year on the mission trip?”  Very practical question.  But what if our question became, “what are we doing right now to discern where God would have us go as we continue to reach our Jerusalem?  Emphasis on “as we continue to reach our Jerusalem.”

Even as persecution took place in Jerusalem ( Acts 8 ) the Apostles remained.  The first person we read of witnessing outside Jerusalem is the Deacon Philip in a city in Samaria.  How interesting that the Apostles remained reaching Jerusalem.

“There” is an option… for sure!

I don’t want to downplay the Judea, Samaria and uttermost options.  We certainly are still fulfilling the call from Acts 1:8, nearly 1/5 of the world’s population lives in areas where the Gospel is still not yet preached.  However, in my own experience and based on the pattern I see in Scripture, going to the uttermost is never the starting point.  I believe we must start with our Jerusalem.  We must train, equip and send our disciples to/for our own home-towns!  This is what we (Youthmark) call Mission51!  We desperately want our teams to have a wonderful mission experience for one week, however, we want all participants living out the mission the other 51 weeks of life!

“Here” is always!

Youth Pastors, I completely understand that you need to answer the “where?” question.  However, I believe you must first answer the “how do we do it here?” question.  In nearly 20 years of student ministry experience I believe I have the answer.  The answer is simple, and my 20 years is merely a reflection of the answer that was given 2000 years ago.  “Make Disciples.”

We must prepare our participants before, during and after a mission trip so that Mission51 is the end goal.  It’s not just an experience, it’s a life-time experience. Please hear my heart, some may see this as a shameless plug for Youthmark Mission Ventures, if that’s what you feel, you’ve missed the point.  This is a shameless plug to fall in love with the lost!

My challenge is for all of us to re-think Student Missions (actually, all missions).  By emphasizing Jerusalem and training folk before, during and after, the emphasis becomes full-time mission, not one-week experience where we hope to get a spiritual high.  No more should we have sign-up, raise funds then show-up mission trips.  It needs to be about faith-building, prayer-reliant, disciple-making training so that we’re prepared for “here and there.”

Whether you, or your church ever do a Youthmark trip or use our Youthmark training materials, my challenge remains: make disciples, not thrill seekers.  The end result is that the thrill-ride that Jesus has for our us in our own Jerusalem will far surpass the thrills of seeing new lands.  As friends and family members in our own communities come to Christ we will experience eternal joy with those we were closest to on earth.

The next few weeks are very important weeks in my life.  I’m doing preview lunches for Youthmark where I am gathering Youth Pastors for a free meal.  Many of these Youth Pastor are coming to the lunch to consider “where they may go” on a mission trip.  And while we REALLY want them to do a YMV, my heart is that they “get” Mission51.  We believe in our curriculums, camps and materials we give for before, during and after.  We love the places we’re going (Costa Rica, Mexico, virtually every western, mountain and southern state; Alaska, Hawaii and Canada). We believe we have priced our products below what anyone other organization is doing, we very much want people to get onboard because we believe “our Jerusalem” is just as spiritually needy as ANY other place.

Last note.

I wrote this blog post in San Jose, Costa Rica.  Where my world was rocked once again.  The needs in Costa Rica were many.  I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am that we (Youthmark) get to partner with our brothers and sisters down south.  However, I know the ONLY way to impact that (CR) community is to have students/leaders who do this as an act of obedience and a natural out-flow of their desire to reach their own Jerusalem! Mission51 is the needs to be the new emphasis!

Let’s re-think this stuff together!

If you would like to be a part of Mission51, please preview the materials/trips online here, if you’re in an area that has a preview lunch, please register here (you can see the complete list of lunches with that click).

Grace,

Brian

SMS: Help Me! I’m Busy (Part 2)

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

The Student Ministry Stuff (SMS) blog has been received well, I really have appreciated the encouraging words over the last couple months.  I’m pleased that the Lord has used these to bless youth leaders, parents and students since I began this weekly post.

Last week, in the first part of this SMS post, I tackled the subject of being “busy” from what I would call an analytical view (some place the emphasis on the first part of that word)… If you didn’t read that post, you may want to do that by clicking here.

This week, I want to take on this same subject but for those who are little bit more of the free-thinking bent, perhaps an abstract-random and maybe even a little ADD. The bottom-line, some people reject a disciplined “charts and graphs” scheduled lifestyle.  As I created the “chart” last week I knew that there would be many who would not resonate with the ideas presented.  Well, I hope this week I can help you with some different ideas that will help create space while still getting the things done that need to get done.  Keeping in mind the presenting problem… we’re trying to please all (if not most) of the people all (if not most) of the time.  Ultimately we know our call is to please God, but for some reason there just seems to be a high demand from people and we struggle with the idea of getting everything done that needs to get done.  It shouldn’t be just about keeping people pleased or “at bay,” but about excelling in our strengths and influencing the Kingdom and His children.

As we begin, know that you don’t have to choose between being a charts and graph scheduled pastor or an abstract random leader.  My guess is that most of us are a little bit of both. My hope becomes that either or both of these posts can help you become more efficient in your position.

Because there are many daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly demands it is easy to get buried in the just keeping up mode.  Feeling like you may sink and drown is not a pleasant feeling.  Missed appointments, unfinished tasks and last-minute prep can easily become the norm.  Well, here are a few simple suggestions (some may call the simplified systems) that may help.

  • First 15. I believe I’ve written about this in some other SMS blog post, but it’s a pretty simple principle to adopt.  In the first 15 minutes in the office (whether thats at a home office, coffee shop or your physical church office) set aside the first 15 minutes (or get to work 15 minutes earlier than normal) and set up your day.  This way you’re not so systematic that your every day is scheduled in advance, but your every day is in fact scheduled that day.  By way of example, lets say on a Tuesday morning I arrived at 8:45am knowing I had staff at 9:00am I would think through my day and the apparent pressures.  Let’s say these were my feelings:  I’m feeling like I’m way behind on my camp talks for this weekend.  I need to have a parent gathering soon, maybe sometime in the next month.  I haven’t started my prep for the games on Wednesday night and I have about six emails sitting in my inbox that probably will require 30-45 minutes.  In the first 15 minutes of my day, rather than doing work on ANY of these things I set up a block schedule (whether written down or just in my mind).  9-11 Staff; 11-1 emails and lunch; 1-3 camp talks and 3-4 games and other youth group prep and 4-5 camp talks again. Tomorrow, the stuff that didn’t get done will probably feel like a little more of a priority and the first 15 will held dictate my next day.
  • iText (or iEmail). When my wife wants to remind me of something she’d like for me to pick up at the grocery store she simply will email me or text it.  That way, I have a written record of the thing I need to buy.  Well, I’ve started to do this to myself.  iText or iEmail is the practice of communicating to myself.  So, as I have the thought “I need to email Bill, Joe and Sam” but don’t have the time to do that right now, I will text/email that to myself.  I then have a written reminder of a task I need to complete. Personally I have found email to be the better choice for me. Even at night, when sort-of mentally debriefing my day or clearing out messages I’ll come across that email and be reminded of those things that I need to do right then or prioritize for tomorrow. Sometimes a second email is sent so that it needs to be read the next morning upon arrival.  This “new school” to-do list gives me a feeling of satisfaction when I can delete the email because the task is completed (feels better than crossing off a list)!
  • Seasonal Scheduling. Go ahead, rebel against your own system!  Some of you need charts and graphs for short seasons.  So, using the concept from last week, set up for yourself a graph, knowing that for this season you’ll feel good about it.  But because you’re a natural rebel or not THAT self-disciplined I’d suggest you stick to the chart for as long as you can and when you see that it isn’t working, mix it up, change your hours, change the days you normally would do a task, etc.  In essence, be in the state of constant change.  However, I do suggest that through all of this, communicate well.  Nothing worse than an Admin, a Pastor or a Spouse thinking you’re doing one thing while you completely changed things up but didn’t tell them!
  • Network Accountability and/or Mentor. If you’re a part of a network or have someone who can hold  you accountable, I’d suggest you set up the communication with a person (in or out of your church) where the accountability partner can pray for you and hold you to the list of things you want to get done that next week.  This person may prove to not only be a pray partner, but someone who mentors you through the priority list for the week (or month).  Be warned, vulnerability might lead to some self-discovery and less of that Pied-Piper, “I can do it on my own” mentality (Praise God!).

 

 

 

Rather than being more verbose, I’d just say that this blog may be meant to whet your appetite on the subject.  I can explore/explain deeper if you’d like to engage any one of these more!

Know you’re not alone!  There are many who want to support you and help, it sometimes just doesn’t feel this way.  Praying for all you out there.  I hope I can help meet some practical needs!

Grace,
Brian

(SMS and) Three-For-Thursday: Evangelism Isn’t Optional

Brian Aaby 2 Comments

I recently ran into my good friends from Dare 2 Share; they were preparing to teach “Unleashing THE Cause” to a group of Youth Leaders who had gathered for this specific training.  In our brief chit-chat, while attendees began to populate the seats, we were able to discuss one of the biggest issues organizations like D2S and Youthmark face–Evangelism is just not a popular subject, in fact, one may say it is a very unpopular concept.  I honestly had someone write to me recently speaking about Youthmark Mission Venture training materials, the comment “this stuff is just too evangelistic.”  Thank you.

Picture this…

  • The Worship concert will draw a huge crowd, even in a bad economy.
  • The Class on “Manorexia” or the one on “Why He likes He” will both be packed.
  • The Discussion group gathered for a conversation about Water will be buzzing.
  • Evangelism… wait… was that a cricket I heard?

I have absolutely NO problem with the subjects listed above. In fact, if at a conference, I would be very interested in attending each of these.  I believe in worship, educating myself in issues of counseling and sexuality and certainly believe we had better look for ways to reach the needs of the worlds hungry, poor and orphaned.

Knowing that I certainly have more (Christian) adults reading my blog than I do high school (or younger) students, I will start by saying THIS BLOG POST IS FOR YOU!

Specifically, to the Christian… evangelism may not be your gift, however, it is your calling (Acts 1:8, Matthew 28:19-20, 2 Timothy 4:5, Mark 6:7, 12, etc.).

I have the privilege of working with youth and training them for what we call “Mission51” –that is, training for the 51 weeks of life outside the mission.  Yes, Youthmark provides top-notch mission ventures, but our long-term sustainability as a ministry and our life-blood is that each participant be committed to living out and sharing about Jesus for EVERY week of his or her life!

I believe that teens should be the best evangelists we have.  Wait? Doesn’t that contradict what I said above?  Didn’t I say this blog was for adults?

Let me repeat, I do believe teens should be the best evangelists we have in America.

  • They say, 80% of Christians in the U.S. trusted in Jesus at the age of 18 or younger.
  • It is also proven that nationals reach nationals far more effectively than a person from a different culture.

Therefore, I surmise, American teens are our best hope of reaching the lost in America.

Instead of us putting this on them (teens) and expecting them to do it, let’s look at three reasons they aren’t doing it.

  1. They fear they don’t have the right words to say (I wouldn’t know what to say if someone asked me about salvation).
  2. They fear rejection (I don’t want this person to hate or reject me)
  3. They have never had it modeled (why should I do it, you’re not)

Evangelism… I must admit, I’m not a big fan of the word itself.  However, I am HUGE fan of the scriptural mandate and the author of said mandate.  The reason I am not a fan is because so many have soiled the name, “evangelized” with the wrong message (namely, works righteousness) and de-graced the beautiful Gospel of Jesus.

However, these above three reasons for non-evangelism remain, and today’s “Three-For-Thursday” give the three ways YOU (Christian Adult) can help a teen become a better evangelist.

  1. Find someone YOUR AGE and share the Good News. What if we, those of us aged 19-99 (yep, I think you’re exempt at 100… joking of course), took the call from Jesus seriously and we engaged in evangelism at a peer level? We need to be in the business of peer-to-peer evangelism.  You’ll probably discover the three reasons teens aren’t doing it are the very reason you have chosen not to obey as well.
  2. Discover the best way for you to share your faith.  In order to discover something of this nature, you’ll find that you actually have to try it more than once.  Some really like the Four Spiritual Laws.  Others are really good at sharing the Romans Road; I know a number of people who like Dare 2 Share’s G.O.S.P.E.L. acrostic.  Me?  I’m developing a methodology for Youthmark, however, I will say that I firmly believe in a relational evangelism model that includes me sharing not just my story, but God’s story as well.  To be honest, I think ANY of the above (and many others) are great tools, but the key– you need to figure out how to relationally engage (and love) people and look for entry points into their life so that you can share the greatest news ever–Jesus dying on the cross and rising again to provide THE way of salvation for those who place their trust in Him.  With repetition you will discover the way you are most comfortable and confident in sharing your faith.
  3. Make evangelism be only one part of the real call… DISCIPLESHIP.  We are not called to just “evangelize” all nations, we are called to “make disciples.”  This simply means that we are to spiritually nurture others to maturity in Christ.  If a person doesn’t know Jesus, we must first evangelize in order to nurture.  So, as you work on number one and two above, understand that you are called not to have great words to say as an evangelist, but to be a person of discipleship.  Thank the Lord for the church, we are not alone in discipleship, we get to share in this journey… however, you, as an individual are called to do the work of an evangelist!

Notice that none of the above even deal with direct adult-to-teen training.  I am just more convinced today that the real issue for why students are not doing evangelism is that they have not had it modeled (reason #3 listed above as to why they aren’t sharing).

Adults, as we discover the words to say, as we begin to understand that the rejection we face is actually a person rejecting Christ (not us), we will then be able to have voice with a teen.  We will be able to talk about our “success” stories in evangelism… by the way, success in evangelism is just about being faithful with sharing, the Holy Spirit gets to do the work of saving!

Let’s be successful so that our best evangelists will experience great success in the future!

Grace,

Brian

Seriously? Umm… hmmm…

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

My wife and I just finished a wonderful three-day, two night date to Victoria, BC.

We were gifted this wonderful getaway a couple years ago, but were not able to get the stars to align for the trip until right now… it was wonderful.

I love Canada, eh?  However, I really did have to say “eh” when we walked through our hotel lobby and came upon a rather loud crowd all gathered for a convention.  Anyone want to take a crack at what this is all about?

Are you a Banner User?

Back to the good ol’ US of A and time to prepare for the National Youth Workers Convention, which I think promises to be a bit different than the above conference… I hope, eh?

Grace,
Brian

If You Had To Give $50k to Someone…

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

I love coming up with outlandish “opening questions” for group settings or long car rides.  Discussion starters, if you will.  So, today’s question…

Someone has gifted you $50,000 to give to someone else, who would you give it to and why?

Most of these questions I ask are obviously make-believe scenarios.  However, with the above question, you and I, and all those we recruit have the opportunity to gift teens in America who stand waiting for someone to mentor them.

If I heard the story correctly, last year Pepsi opted out of paying millions upon millions for advertising during the SuperBowl instead opting to create a funding program for non-profits and businesses with creative ideas to “refresh everything.”  Good work Pepsi.

The National Network of Youth Ministries (NNYM) is vying for one of these grants through Pepsi.  Specifically they are looking for funds for their, “MentorYouth” program.  Today, we have 4 Million more youth looking for a mentor than we have mentors.  As Americans our cry is often, “what is happening with the youth today?” Well, perhaps our youth are actually saying, “I wish I had an adult loving and helping me today?”

I realize that I am probably preaching to the choir, in that if you’re reading this post, you most likely already do care deeply about teens.  I’m asking you to care a little bit more and little bit differently over the next 10-11 days.

$50,000 of FREE money, you can help give it away!

Each day you can vote three times for the MentorYouth idea.

Vote Online: Click Here (and for you to copy/paste the url if forwarding this: http://www.refresheverything.com/find-mentors)

Vote by Text:  102430 to Pepsi (73774)

Vote by Facebook: Click Here (and for you to copy/paste:  http://apps.facebook.com/pepsirefresh/idea/set?auth_token=c45e864e6f94e0d2d7cd180ea214734b)

Please note that with the online option you’ll click “vote for this idea” and then it’ll take you to a sign-in page (with word verification) and then back to the “vote for this idea” page.  Make sure you actually click “vote” because the first time ONLY took you to the sign in page, it did not register a vote (you’ll actually get a confirmation on the page and your remaining votes number will change).

HERE IS THE REAL CHALLENGE!!!

With only 11 days remaining (from the time I wrote this), it is ESSENTIAL that you’re not the only one voting.  Here are some idea I’d like to give you to get this MentorYouth idea up into the top 10 (currently ranked 168, top 10 ideas get the funds).

  1. Get your youth group to text in a vote EACH day. Text your entire group each day for the next 11 days.  Say something like, “text 102430 to 73774 to help get 50k to teen mentors” (an initial text/email/fb message will be helpful to explain the idea).
  2. Get your Facebook friends to vote via Facebook. In your status update you can give the link and an update like, “teens nationwide can use mentors, your vote each day will help get 50k! (insert url link)”
  3. Get you church to go online and vote. Send an email, perhaps copying instructions from this blog post to church members and see if they’ll vote as well.
  4. SYATP Viral Campaign.  Have a student on Wednesday (at SYATP) get everyone at the flagpole (before or after prayer) to get everyone to pull out their phones and text 102430 to 73774.
  5. Teens are the best voters! Get your teens to believe in this cause.  If you can get your students to get the word out, especially through texting and facebook, we may see the rankings shoot up quickly!
  6. Blog: If you’re a blogger, either link to my blog, or create your own post with this information.  Let’s get the word out and see the rankings go up!

This will literally take you 2-3 minutes today and 1-2 minutes each day over the next 11 and we could see 50k come through!

Last Note: NNYM is a great organization that has been around for 30 years, in no way am I being compensated for this effort.  I simply believe in NNYM and want to help in any way I can.  In an economy like this, funding like this can be HUGE.  I am praying God is glorified in our efforts to raise awareness that teens need mentors, regardless of whether they get the 50k!

Grace,
Brian

P.S. If you do nothing else… will you vote one of these three ways right now, please!