Category Travel

Gospel Conversations… Living/Speaking Mission51

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

Do you find it difficult to bring up Jesus, the gospel or spirituality in your conversations? I believe that which is difficult now, could become addictive soon (addictive in a good way of course)!

Launching Youthmark a few years ago was truly an answer to a prayer I had prayed for several months, I was asking God to “free me up to do the things I am most passionate about and the things He had most gifted me to do.”

As a Youth Pastor I was very passionate about students being equipped/empowered to share the Gospel on their campus, in their club, within their communities and with the non-believers who show up at their church. I wanted the end-result of our (parents, leaders and my) shepherding to be a young-beleiever actively pursuing the lost with the rescuing message of the gospel.

This is what I get to do more on the macro-level now through Youthmark. Working with Youth Pastors, Christian schools and para-church organizations I get to write and speak about these things… but the macro must translate to micro, even in (or especially in) my life!

I am not an evangelist when it comes to giftedness, however, I am because of calling. And if you are a follower of Christ, you are to be an evangelist as well (“do the work of an evangelist”… “make disciples”… “be my witness”… “pass on to others what you have heard from me”…etc.).

From time to time I’ll post an adaptation of a conversation I (or others) have had to give you an idea of how a regular conversation can become a gospel conversation. If nothing else may it serve as a prayer-request to pray for the person who heard the good news. The following conversation had some interjected “small talk” throughout the conversation, but I removed these for the sake of space, but please understand the “small talk” only helped establish the relationship/understanding more!

Setting: Starbucks Coffee in Colorado (I was speaking at a camp and had gone off-campus to get to some emails and do some last minute tweaking of notes). I was on my macbook pro and a 20-something young-man was three of four seat away pounding away on his.

Young Man: Do you know much about Firefox, Explorer or Safari?

Me: I pretty much use Safari, simply because it was built by Apple so I think it has Apple security in mind and I’ve heard that the others are a little less safe, but no, I don’t now much about the differences.

Young Man: Cool, thanks man, I am pretty new to mac, but I have found some limitations with Safari, and used Firefox on my PC before, so I’ll probably stick with that.

Me: Yeah, thus far I have found only one glitch with Safari and my website, it won’t let our teams post pictures for their mission blogs with Safari without crashing, so we suggest they use a different browser for those posts. But that’s the only problem I’ve had to date.

Young Man: Missions? Do you travel a lot for missions?

Me: Well, sort of, I train students not just for missions, but for what we call Mission51, the 51 weeks beyond the mission trip. But yes, I get to travel some, but my biggest goal is to see students able to share about Jesus in their home-setting too.

Young Man: Do you train teams who just want to do the mission work but not the spiritual stuff?… I mean, can people use your organization to go on help-oriented trips to help people in need just because? I ask because I have done that sort of stuff in the Gulf after the Hurricanes?

Me: Well, Youthmark, my organization, has done relief work there too, we go in wanting to help in ANY practical way we can, but we also want our students to be prepared to share about the Lord as well. What motivated you to go to the Gulf?

Young Man: Oh, I got paid. But I’m interested in helping people… it was a good experience, but I want to volunteer somewhere here in Colorado, just to help people… ya know? Soup kitchens or helping teens with stuff, that sort of stuff makes me feel good.

Me: There are some great opportunities to volunteer I am sure. My organization mainly works with churches though because I want to see it be more than just the physical help, I want people to know about God’s love too! Have you done any of your volunteer work through a church?

Young Man: Well, I was raised in a strict home, so I had to do stuff when I was younger, but now that I’m out of the house, I can choose to do stuff, but I don’t want it to be with the church.

Me: You feel like spreading your wings and discovering things on your own?

Young Man: Well, don’t get me wrong, I love my parents, but I just don’t like the… I forget the word… here’s how God wants you to be so you can go to Heaven. I just don’t think that’s how it should be, I mean, maybe later in life I’ll want that sort of thing for my kids, but now that I can choose, I want to live how I want to live.

Me: Legalism? That’s the word I think of… like, it’s following rules that get you to heaven. I don’t believe that at all. I think it is only grace that gets me to heaven. Legalism sucks the life out of people, I think.

Young Man: You seriously believe you get to Heaven by grace, not by works? (I couldn’t believe he asked me that).

Me: Absolutely I do! But more than that, it’s what the Bible itself says… my name is Brian by-the-way (I approach him and shake his hand).

Andrew: Hi, I’m Andrew… dude, I just don’t see how it can be all about grace and not the stuff you do? I mean, I think I’d probably go to hell right now because of the stuff I am doing, but I also believe that I can change that and do better later and still get to heaven.

Me: But we don’t know if we have “later…” But I do understand your thinking, I think a lot of people think that same way. I know I did until I heard about God’s love and desire.

Andrew: When?

Me: When I was 17 I heard the whole story of Jesus. The gospel is what it’s called, I’m sure you’ve heard that term (he nodded and said, “yeah, Sunday school stuff”)… It comes down to this Andrew. I believe that God created us to be in relationship with Him. But He also gave us choice, free will, to choose to live in relationship with Him or to reject that. I chose to go my own way, make my own choices, just as you describe yourself right now. My sin, my choosing to go my own way, has separated me from that relationship. The Bible describes the only way to heaven is to be in relationship with God, but because of my sin that was impossible. There is nothing I could do to remove my own sins. I can’t do things to get to Heaven on my own… my good works cannot be good enough, because my sin has marred anything I did. But God knew that and provided a way back through Jesus. The Bible describes the Messiah coming to live a perfect life, die on a tree (tree) and prove that He is God by rising from the dead.  Jesus did that. Scripture goes on to say that if you trust in Jesus, and Him alone, you can have that relationship with God again and live eternally with Him and for Him. So, when I heard this at age 17, it made sense. Everything about my life was about acceptance of others and though I had a loving family and great friends, I didn’t know the security of God’s acceptance until I trusted in Jesus. Now I want others to know this! I want you to know this Andrew!

Because I was already late for dinner and about to speak I had to leave the coffee shop, but was able to invite Andrew to the camp to hear me speak that evening. He didn’t show up, but I am trusting that he heard the good news. He was VERY attentive, respectful and literally gave me a hug at the end of the conversation.  Please pray for this 21 year-old young man, Andrew. I was able to name a couple great churches in the area I trust he’d find relationship with strong believers and the answers to the questions he has!

I look forward to sharing more Gospel Conversations soon. I am hoping to hear Gospel Conversations others are having even more. Even now as I finish this post, I am about to go back up to a Starbucks register and feed my addiction… I’m getting a refill of coffee, but hoping that even the refill will continue the conversation started with a barista-friend months ago!

Grace,

Brian

 


 

Three-For-Thursday: Vacation Pics with Kids

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

It’s been a long time since I’ve done a 3-for-Thursday, but today, I couldn’t resist the challenge of posting a few of my favorite pics from our vacation. I’ll probably do another post or two about the vacation/speaking/meeting tour, but for now, here are three of my favorite pics from our 23 day trip!

5:15 am day one start in PJ's with much anticipation!

Montana beauty!

In Western CO visiting the Drumm family!

What a great trip!

Grace,
Brian

Some Great Stuff Happening

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

Every now and then my blog takes an unannounced vacation. This was one of the times.

Over the last couple weeks we were able to take “Speak-ation Meet-union!” (one part speaking, one part vacation, one part Youthmark meetings and one part family reunion).  Good times.

I’ll be posting more about this in the next few posts, but wanted to give the ever-decreasing audience a little heads up as to what’s been going on (it’s funny to see the reader-ship dwindle when you don’t post).

Here are few little highlights (with some pic-posts to come as well):

WA (on our way east): Met with the Spiritual Life Director of a Christian school; Elisabeth and I are speaking together this next year during s Spiritual Emphasis week at an eastern WA Christian High School.

ID: We blinked during the panhandle portion of I-9o, so we completely missed Idaho.

MT : Spent 5-6 days with Elisabeth’s sister and husband. Did some sites and sounds, but mostly enjoyed the pool and family time.

WY: Yellowstone and some long open roads.

CO: Spoke at Summit Camp again, awesome time.  50 people trusted in Jesus for their salvation. So fun to have my family at one of my speaking gigs. In addition got to see family and friends and celebrate our 15th anniversary (July 20) at the place we got married (Colorado Springs). Mission51 has begun.

NM/UT/CO/AZ: We did the 4-Corners thing. Really ugly area, but fun place to take our kids and say that “we’ve been to 4 corners.”

AZ: Great price on a 4-star hotel (thanks Priceline). Saw friends and had a very good meeting for Youthmark (more later)

CA: Elisabeth’s folks live in SoCal! Always great to see them!

I’ll be posting some pics and more stuff about the actual events that took place soon!

Grace,
Brian

One Week In Evangelism

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

WARNING: The following is a longer post, but will have you standing an applauding Jesus if you take the time to read through a one-week window of what He did!

Some say “social justice” is the new “evangelism.” I say some are wrong. Don’t get me wrong, social justice (which I think should be re-named acts of compassion) is needed, but I believe most of the time it can/should be accompanied with evangelism (sharing the Gospel with actual words).  I believe EVANGELISM is alive and is life giving! In fact, I tracked the role of evangelism over a one-week period in my personal life and in the life of the ministries I am associated with. Quite a one-week period! Praise God.

Friday/Saturday, June 24/25: Simultaneous launches of several Youthmark Mission Venture (YMV) teams took place in Northern California and the panhandle of Idaho. All told, 11 churches were starting their missions.

  • I personally was able to share Christ with a family who was gracious enough to host a mission team prior to the launch beginning. 

Medford, OR "Friends helping Friends"

Sunday, June 26: After the launch in Redding I drove to Medford, OR for my flight to Colorado. While in Medford, on Sunday morning, I took a long walk; here I witnessed a homeless ministry at a park in Medford. I was greatly encouraged in conversation by a team member who reported to me about the ministry. This “Friends Helping Friends, Medford” (they have a Facebook page) meets in this park EVERY Sunday (rain, sun or snow)! Every week the Gospel is presented (in Word and deed). This was a divine appointment.

  • I personally got to minister/witness to a hurting girl who sat next to me on the plane from Medford to Colorado. Amazing how a tearful “I miss my friend” comment can turn into a conversation about Jesus.
Monday, June 27: Reports begin pouring in on the blogs of successful starts to the ministries of Youthmark Mission Ventures. Meanwhile I started my speaking in Colorado at Summit Camp (Ponderosa). 200+ teens in attendance, many whom do not know Jesus.
  • While at Starbucks in Monument, CO (near the camp), I was asked about the uniqueness of my Sbux card (it’s an old Seattle card). Through sharing that I was from Seattle and being asked about why I was in CO, I was able to turn the conversation with three Baristas into an evangelism opportunity where I was point blank asked “what are you going to speak to these teens about?”  AHHHH, love those set-ups!
Tuesday, June 28: I was drawn to tears as I read a few of our blogs, reading about evangelism opportunities our Youthmark students were taking advantage of in CA, ID, MT, OR, WA and Alberta. I received an email from one Youth Pastor who asked specifically for prayer for the town in which his group was serving. The students who were attending their outreach had backgrounds that included parental abandonment, parental abuse (one student was burned by his parent’s crystal meth pouring out on him) and one teen showing up at the park who was dealing with his dad’s recent murder of his girlfriend (and this teen saw the act).
  • My Tuesday was a spiritually intense day; while playing putt-putt with a few students at camp, I mentioned to a couple middle-school students, “you guys are a lot of fun.” One boy stopped, looked up at me and said, “you’re the first adult to ever say that I was fun.”  From about 2:00 to 4:00 that day, the Holy Spirit worked on my heart and changed the message I was to speak that evening; the coolest part, the passage I had already outlined fit the theme so well… God had me speak on the Bleeding Woman and the theme of “burdens”
  • Immediately after my message I drove to a restaurant to meet my Colorado friend, Steve for some wings. While at the restaurant, we were able to talk to Harold and Dan.  These two guys have served in Iraq three times each, have killed too many people to count (including women and children who were deemed “a threat”). The guys were desperate for escape. They both were on four different Post Traumatic Stress Disorder drugs and said, “but they don’t help.”  Steve and I shared the Gospel with these guys for about two hours! They believed they deserved hell and couldn’t do anything to make up for the stuff they have done. THEY NEED TO UNDERSTAND GRACE! They were receptive and I am praying for their souls!
  • I believe that God gave me a great spiritual birthday present this day, it was 21 years ago, June 28, where I placed my trust in Christ.
Wednesday, June 29: More amazing “God” things were happening out and about through YMV teams. My favorite report came from Bangor, CA; Jeff Clabaugh the Youth Pastor serving there that week reported about two young men (one the Pastor’s son and the other a non-Christian friend) NOT showing up for the morning Teen-time like they had been showing up each morning. They were late because the Pastor’s son was personally sharing Jesus with his friend. Upon arrival the friend announced, “I am a Christian now!” Later that evening, the new believer showed up at the park for evening outreach, only he didn’t show up alone, he showed up with his brother, whom he had shared the gospel with during the day, the brother trusted in Christ as well! INSTANT evangelism!

  • Glad I didn't wear my Soul Surfer shirt today!

    Though it was “evangelistic,” in terms of sharing, I took the time to travel up north to the home offices of Dare2Share and was able to attend their mid-week chapel. Afterwards, Jason Lamb and I had lunch together. Jason is headed back into a Student Ministry pastor position; it was great to hear his heart for getting back to direct student ministry.

  • Again, the Holy Spirit threw me a few curveballs and tweaks to my planned message. While I preached on Wednesday the Lord made it known that I was to clearly share the complete GOSPEL. However, He also made it clear that I was to NOT do an “altar call.”  Instead, I challenged any/all students who wanted to place their trust in Christ for his/her salvation to talk specifically with a youth leader during the closing worship set that EVERFOUND was leading. We know of at least 9 of these conversations that took place that evening! Praise God.
Thursday, June 30: By mid-afternoon I was blessed to read a report of a baptism taking place up in Alberta! I was rejoicing with Wescott, the Youth Pastor from Westwood Baptist of Olympia as his team was seeing the fruit of the ministry in Picture Butte and Raymond!
  • As I spoke on Thursday I was able to clearly communicate not just the gospel, but the call on the Christians to share the good news with their lost friends. That evening we saw at least another 16 students trust in Jesus and another 150+ make a commitment to share Christ with an unsaved family member or friend! What a night!
Friday, July 1: The week at camp came to a close, but the good news was about to be preached to over 1000 people on Friday evening. I received an email about my Young Life students at camp from our team leader. He reported that over 100 students placed their trust in Christ at the end of the week at camp! WOW! In addition to the salvations from YL camp, I was reading about scores of students in each of our 11 locations we had teams. I think when it was all said and done, over 100 students trusted in Christ in our YMV communities!
  • Friday evening brought some great “evangelism encouragement” as Greg Stier and I were able to grab dinner together. I love being with a like-minded person. The ministries of D2S and Youthmark have so much common DNA; I believe we’ll be able to cross-polinate a lot as both organization move forward.
One week. In just one week I was able to see THIS MUCH in the area of evangelism. I thank all of you who prayed. I thank all of you who participated by actively pursuing the lost and I can’t wait to see more and more respond to the call! One week is just one week, Mission51 has begun, the 51 weeks after camps, mission trips and retreats matter all the more! Back in my Jerusalem the harvest is JUST as plentiful!
Grace,
Brian

Steering the Titanic!

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

Last week I was in “The O.C.” Orange County California is a fun place to visit and it was even more fun to be there as an invitee to the Youth Ministry Executive Council (YMEC). There were about 45 people gathered, the Presidents/Leaders in Student Ministries of the major church (denomination) and parachurch organizations.  I was honored to be representing Youthmark at this gathering.

I knew and had interacted with well over half the people before and was blessed to spend some quality time in conversation with many of these familiar faces. I also enjoyed the new relationships and hearing different perspectives and strategies from others in Youth Ministry.

YMEC was done differently this year; a change I couldn’t have been more pleased with. Through the use of “Open Space Technology” many conversations were birthed. Instead of inviting a speaker to “speak at” the participants, we the participants were invited to speak into a variety of subjects and then see what rose to the top in our conversations.

I was very excited to see personal evangelism surface as an area that we, national leaders, better be emphasizing. It was very interesting to me that in most conversations, including these at YMEC, most people are very quick to give a head-nod of agreement that we (church/parachurch) should be emphasizing evangelism, but when it comes down to it it isn’t much more than a verbal recognition. Well, I felt the tide began to turn at YMEC. The voices that were speaking seemed to give it a little momentum and I actually felt like the proverbial Titanic could get turned around before it strikes a rock and sinks.

My friend Greg Stier described the moment I believe this started to take place in a recent blog post of his (read that here). Friends of mine like Greg, Mark Moder, Bo Boshers, Chuck Klein and Mark Matlock seemed to keep the ball rolling for the last half hour of the conversation, so much so that I literally was getting a little teary eyed thinking that if (and please pray) we really want to get serious about seeing the church, parachurch and individual call to evangelism taken seriously then we had better seriously take His call to prayer seriously!

I am praying for these three things right now.

1. Praying that my personal prayer life would grow tenfold and that a major component of those prayers would be for other orgs and churches as well as the lost!

2. I’m praying for unity to continue among these denomination and organizational leaders (and am willing to play my part in keeping the conversation going).

3. Praying that we (adults, leaders, parents, pastors, elders, etc.) all would understand that if we want to see evangelize/make disciples then we had better model it ourselves.

I’m willing to risk and be obedient to the call. I hope you are too. Let’s change the course the Titanic is on!

Grace,
Brian

Our Mission51 Field!

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

Sunny and upper 70’s in Houston!

More sunny and low 90’s in San Diego!

Sun, Clouds, Snow and Winds (temperatures ranged from 23 to 73) in Colorado Springs!

This weekend I feel completely at home, because I am at home!

Lake Retreat in the Southeast Seattle area plays host to not just this weekend but next weekend as well for our Youthmark Mission Ventures “Together” retreat. The first three retreats/training times have been an ABSOLUTE blessing. I have heard more compliments and convictions this year than ever before. I cannot wait for our largest crowds over the next three weeks (May 20-21 in Portland).

The Northwest is my “home court” and my Jerusalem. It is the place that Mission51 takes place for us northwesterners. It is one of the most unchurched regions of the United States. Therefore I am the most excited for these three retreats! I want to see students equipped not just to go on a short-term mission trip this summer, but I want to see them equipped for the 51 weeks of life outside of the mission trip experience (Mission51)!

If you’re passionate about the NW then please pray for these three weekends. If you’re at a church with students not coming to these weekends, there is still room at LR next weekend and Portland May 20-21. We have approx 50 spots open at each before we get too full. Here is a link for these retreats.

Can’t wait to see these teens and leaders grow in confidence in loving on their Jerusalem. The Harvest is truly plentiful, looking forward to the increase in workers for our field!

By the way, classic NW weather for this one… clouds, showers and mid 50’s!

Grace,
Brian

SoCal SoGood!

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

I returned early Sunday morning (in time to be with my fam at church) from San Diego; the first official “Together’ training weekend took place at Oakbridge Camp in Ramona. What a weekend it was!  I was really pumped going into it and am even more pumped coming out of it. Of all the retreats we’ve done, this has the most “Mission51” appeal and training. Students and staff, I believe, really come home inspired to reach their home area!

I’m humbled and inspired by what I read from Jeff Lowry (a Youth Pastor who attended the retreat; you can follow their youthmark blog here):

This past weekends Together Retreat was stinkin’ awesome.  From the very first worship set, to the closing prayer, it is evident that God’s hand was all over the weekend. 

We learned a lot this weekend, all of us, myself included.  It’s amazing to watch young people acting on their faith and sharing the G.O.S.P.E.L..  For some of my youth, I think it was their first time to do that.  Sure it was a controlled environment, and nobody was going to get chased down and beaten for sharing their faith, but the butterflies that go along with it were the same, myself included.  I’m a youth pastor right, I should be a natural at that.  For too long, I’ve done what Brian Aaby talked about, and encouraged kids to do it, but never jumped in myself.  Ahhhh, the sweet smell of conviction.

Now on to the coincidence part.  This Sunday at church, we were going to have our regular youth service, but I felt this check in my spirit to stay in the main service.  Would you believe God spoke to us about Love.  And loving the “unloveable” and reaching out to the lost.  Amazing.  I don’t believe in coincidences, just that God wanted to confirm in our hearts the work He started at Together.

I also added 2 more mission trippers this weekend!  Total team is up to 13 now!  I am totally stoked!

Thanks Jeff! You and your group were a pleasure to hang out with this weekend! I’m praying for you mission to AZ but am even more pumped about your mission NOW in San Diego!

As you pray for Jeff and the other teams, I’d invite you to also pray for a few MAJOR details that need to be worked out for our Colorado retreat in a couple weeks!

Grace,
Brian

Specific Prayer Partners!

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

Hey Friends!

We have these really cool blogs going on over at youthmark.com.  Just yesterday I shot an email to all the participating youth groups for the 2011 YMV’s. In that email I stated that the biggest mistake that Youth Pastors admit to after a YMV experience is not soliciting prayer early enough or often enough! Even now, only about 1/3 of the teams are blogging, let’s pray them onto here!

I don’t want to make that same mistake of not soliciting prayer!

This blog post is a unique one, it is a call for prayer (right now) but beyond that a call for prayer-partnership for those who would like to carry us through any of the areas listed below. If you want to “partner” please comment on this post. I will then be able to email you anything specifically because email addresses can be seen by me for anyone who comments.

Here are the things I am looking for prayer partners:

  1. San Diego area Spring Retreat (April 15/16)
  2. Denver area Spring Retreat (April 29/30)
  3. Seattle area Spring Retreat #1 (May 6/7)
  4. Seattle area Spring Retreat #2 (May 13/14)
  5. Portland area Spring Retreat (May 20/21)
  6. Prayer partners for Joe Poppino (worship leader)
  7. Prayer partners for The Admission (the band launching out of these retreats and co-leading with Joe)
  8. Prayer partners for the 40 or so Youth Groups training through the spring for Mission51 (and a mission trip this summer)
  9. Prayer partners for me specifically and the teaching done at these retreats
  10. Prayer partner for my family specifically and the great times I have with them before and between each of the training times!

Would love to see all 10 of these areas “partnered” and perhaps even more than one parter on each!  Any takers?

Grace,
Brian

A Different Northwest

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

This last weekend was an absolute blessing! Thank you NorthWest Bible Church! As I mentioned yesterday in my blog, NWBC served as the test-market for our Spring Tour. Not only was it a lot of fun, it was a huge success from my perspective. There are several little tweaks we’ll make over the next couple weeks, but for the most part the “core” is all there. On top of all this, it was great weather! Sunny and 85, truly a different NW than what I am used to in the early spring.

When it was all said and done about 40 students and leaders were exposed to this year’s “Together” tour stuff. I am VERY excited about it and think that it is the best retreat materials we’ve put together yet. It is very different than the first couple years (I aim to have the retreat look/feel different each year, while keeping things consistent enough that participants at least feel some sense of routine). My favorite “moment” of this years retreat, thus far, is going to be the Saturday afternoon short-session. I believe it will be very effective for Mission51.

One very cool element that I’m stoked about is that along with some of our own stuff we’re using Dare-2-Share’s (D2S) “G.O.S.P.E.L.” acrostic as part of our training this year. Over the last few years I’ve formed a friendship with several of the folk at D2S. Much of Youthmark’s DNA and D2S’s DNA match. At the core, we both REALLY believe that we ought to be living and sharing the greatest news with everyone! However, many Christians don’t believe they can, or are trained enough to do so. I believe the best thing we can do is help students (and adults) discover that it isn’t that hard and there are ways to easily remember the key points we should share in order to tell the compete story! The G.O.S.P.E.L. is one of those tools that I believe hits that mark (you really should check out Propaganda’s music video that captures this so well here). Rather than re-inventing the wheel, I simply asked if we could use it and share the love! They very graciously said “of course!” So thank you Greg, Debbie, Jason and all others at D2S! Students walked away having being trained in a few tools to share Jesus with their lost friends on their own campus, at their clubs, in their community and even at their own church!

I return home a blessed man to have had another weekend with my Texas friends. I can’t wait to see them on their Idaho Mission, but I’m even more pumped to hear about their mission this spring in Spring!

Grace,
Brian