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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).

North, then South

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

This week was a blast.  I returned from Costa Rica (with a quick stop at LAX) at 9:18AM on Tuesday.  At Noon that day I was welcoming in Youth Leaders to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Lynnwood for our first Western WA preview lunch for YMV’s.  I was truly blessed to see so many new faces and many friends I’ve know for years.  Though tired from being gone and very little rest, I believe I still connected on the passion level with these leaders!

On Wednesday one of my primary contacts from Costa Rica was in town.  I had just met Erick in Costa Rica on Friday night, and here we were having lunch together at The Rock in Covington on Wednesday.  So fun to form friendships so quickly.  I can’t wait to see the blessing Erick will be to us in CR and what sort of blessing Youthmark can be to his people in CR!

On Thursday we had our south-end Preview Lunch at RoundTable Pizza in Lacey!  Again, the blessing of spending time with many familiar faces while getting to meet brand new folk who have faithfully been serving in Student Ministries in the  Olympia, Lacey and central I-5 corridor areas!

This state is blessed with passionate folk who love the Lord and love teens.  I believe they are on board with Mission51 and hope that Youthmark can serve them in very practical ways in the months ahead!  Please pray specifically that many will partner with us and that we’ll see Western WA equipped with many more missionaries living out mission “over there” for one week and “right here” for the other 51 weeks!

Grace,
Brian

Here are some snaps from Lynnwood:

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

Three-For-Thursday: Cruisin’ Colorado

Brian Aaby 1 Comment

This week was a crazy-fun week.  I am writing this post on the airplane having departed Denver International… as I touch down I will get on some wi-fi and get this Three-For-Thursday out still on Thursday!

This week was my Colorado marketing lunches for Youthmark.  So, by way of the “3-For” I will tell you about the three lunches.

I landed on Monday evening in Denver and immediately drove south to Colorado Springs and stayed with great friends Peter and Christa.  It’s such a joy to have them as my Colorado Springs host family, immediately upon arrival I am bombarded by their kids similar to the way Dino greeted Fred Flintstone.  Love it.  Makes me TOTALLY miss my kids!  I had a fantastic time catching up with Peter and Christa. Then I got to talk ministry/business with Peter (PeterB Designs is Peter’s business and he does some of our design work for Youthmark).  If you are looking for design work done (shirts, logo’s, book covers, posters, events, business cards, etc.) you should consider PeterB Designs.

On Tuesday morning I had breakfast with one of my great friends from College and a new friend from last summer. Steve and Rand are both church plant pastors in Palmer Lake (Steve) and Castle Rock (Rand). Great times with these two brothers.

Now, on to the lunches and the 3-For

Colorado Springs: Old Chicago was the home of my first preview lunch of the year.  Kirk Petersen has been taking on Oregon and Northern California for the last couple weeks, but for me, this was the first.  The highlight of the time for me in Colorado Springs was meeting new folk.  We did a lunch here last year, but to see new faces was awesome.  Tuesday evening I received an email from one of the participants, he said, “If only had known about you sooner.  I appreciate your heart! This has been something I had even thought about doing myself because I didn’t know this was available”  He went on to ask how he could volunteer with Youthmark as well.  A great blessing.  I love it when people completely get Mission51!

Grand Junction: After lunch I was off to Glenwood Springs (4.5 hour drive w/snow) and my “host family” there.  Jared and Andrea are such a blessing as well. I love hanging out with them and their two boys!  After a great dinner and a long walk in the now falling snow, Jared and I had a good time talking through some tough ministry issues.  We continued the conversation in the morning over Coffee.  The YFC guy, Pete, joined us for breakfast before I took off for the 90 minute trek to Grand Junction.  The GJ lunch was at the Olive Garden.  Love me some salad and breadsticks.  The highlight of the lunch for me was the time before and after with my friend Bobby.  Bobby brought his students to a camp I spoke at this last summer, we grew to be friends that week.  I very much enjoyed getting to know all the other new faces (I had previously only known Bobby) at the lunch. A great mix of denominations as well, it was fun seeing them all network a bit and get to know each other! Instead of speaking at Bobby’s youth group that evening (as we hoped) I took off to beat any bad weather over Vail pass.

Boulder: It took me about four hours to get back over to North Denver.  Before I left I texted one of my former students, Shane. I had hopes of hanging out with him Thursday before I took off Thursday evening.  Well, because I was coming in early I thought I’d check to see if Wednesday evening would work better.  It worked out great.  I got to hang out with he and his wife, Stephanie.  They graciously saved me $60-$100 and invited me to crash at their place. This morning (Thursday) I got some writing done at Starbucks before heading up to the lunch at Old Chicago in Boulder.  I LOVED the lunch in Boulder.  It was a great mix of new faces and familiar faces.  This group was highly conversational, which was a nice blessing. The highlight was having Tom Coffan, a Youth Pastor of 40 years share about his experience with Youthmark.  I was absolutely blown away by his comments.  I would love to take Tom on tour with me, he’ll sell our stuff better than me!  Very humbling to have a man like Tom say such gracious things.

The trip was a hoot.  My friend from the Colorado Baptist Convention, Mike, joined me for the first and last lunch, it was great to catch up with him.  He asked me to speak at their two camps again this summer, what an honor.

Three lunches down, please pray for Lynnwood (Tuesday) and Lacey (Thursday) next week for me and (Eugene and Salem) for Kirk.  We are asking God to do a mighty work in and through these wonderful shepherds (the Youth Pastors).  Our hope is that they will see Mission as not just here, not just there, but Anywhere!  Mission51!

If you know of folk who should be there, get them to register here.

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

Three-For-Thursday: Introducing…

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

Though most won’t be reading this until Friday, I am meeting my Thursday deadline for a Three-For-Thursday still by writing at 10:30pm.

For this “3f0r,” I am excited to give you three introductions.  Some folk I’m excited for you to meet in terms of Youthmark related stuff!  So, please join me in praising God for the people he has lined up for me to be in ministry with… I give you three introductions…


  1. Ricky Judd–Youthmark Lad. Ricky is one of my former students in youth group and small group.  He is a 21 (well, technically a few days away) year-old young man who I’ve had the privilege of knowing for about the last seven years.  Ricky has been volunteering with Youthmark the last couple years, especially at the Spring Retreats.  I am sure his volunteer role will continue for many of our events, but in the mean time, he is a full-time student and also volunteers his time at his new church (New Community)–he works with the senior high students there.  Ricky is coming onboard for some part-time seasonal work right now.  He is helping Buzz Huget with a lot of our foll0w-up calls and data-entry work for our marketing.  Though his “paid” vocational work with Youthmark may not be long-term and may ebb-and-flow, he’ll always be a “staffer” in my book!  Welcome aboard Ricky!
  2. The Admission–Worship Band. A couple years ago I had the privilege of meeting Joe Poppino.  Joe was the guest worship-leader at a camp at which I was the guest speaker.  We hit it off right away.  Joe became the worship leader for Youthmark that spring (our first).  Last year Joe and I partnered together again for our “Spring Tour” with Youthmark (Spring Retreats).  Only last year we stepped it up a notch… Joe has an album! So now, Joe is bigtime!  He’s a singer/songwriter/recording artist and Worship Leader/Pastor.  Well, he’s a glutton for punishment and decided he wanted to continue to partner with Youthmark, only with a twist.  Joe and I both have a passion to pour into the next generation.  I love seeing the “lightbulb” moments in the life of a student.  Many of the Youth Pastors I get to interact with and help are quite-a-bit younger than me.  Likewise, Joe loves influencing younger folk and in this instance, musicians.  So, Joe is going to be my worship leader at our retreats, but he will also be mentoring a new band; helping them launch into this next venture in their lives.  So, I bring to you The Admission! I’ve had the honor of knowing a couple of these guys the last many years as well.  It’s been fun to see Frankie and Caleb grow up to be young men.  I look forward to getting to know James and Justin a lot better as well.  These guys are a legitimate band, have their own stuff but want to really glorify the Lord with the influence He may give to them.  As they write new stuff for The Admission they’ll also be doing some gigs that are worship sets as well.  Can’t wait to see God use them for worship in some settings and evangelism (with their other stuff) in other venues!  Can’t wait to see Joe Poppino with The Admission on our Spring Tour!
  3. Alon Banks–San Diego County. Alon Banks (yep, correct spelling), is a tall man.  Taller than me.  Dang it.  Anyway, Alon is a great guy, a man with great missions experience (worked for 11 years with Amor Ministries–they do Mexico missions) and is currently working with the National Network of Youth Ministries.  He’s adding the role with Youthmark as our San Diego County rep.  Similar to Kirk Petersen’s role with Youthmark in Oregon and SW WA, Alon is responsible for reaching out to and nurturing the relationships with the Youth Pastors and ministries in his territory.  Our hope is to get as many churches connected with Youthmark and living out Mission51 as we can!  Because Alon has much experience in the Youth and Youth Mission field I am really excited about how he will influence our current structure and set-up.  He’s a good thinker and a lot of fun to be around!  I look forward to seeing what it’s like to have someone on the ground in SoCal.  Pray for him as he begins these relationships with YP’s, his work with NNYM and continues to be a great dad (two kids) and husband.  Welcome on board Alon!

Full speed ahead!  Appreciate the prayers for Youthmark. We need them!

Grace,
Brian

SMS: Help me! I’m busy! (part 1)

Brian Aaby 4 Comments

A good friend of mine, whom I consider very much “on the ball” as a Youth Pastor recently confessed to me that he’s really struggling with keeping his schedule straight and balanced while still trying to maintain his sanity as he navigates youth ministry, church ministry, family life, personal relationships, etc. etc.

Okay, this wasn’t a just a good friend.  It was four.  I literally have had the same conversation with four of my good youth pastor buddies in the last three weeks.  So, I thought I’d give this Student Ministry Stuff (SMS) blog post a shot at tackling the foundation of the Youth Pastor’s Time Management.

Some people are “charts and graphs” people.  Others reject them.  So I’m going to challenge myself to do a two week SMS blog post again and write to both those who can deal (or should deal) with the attempt at becoming organized with a thought-out plan (methodology). Next week I’ll try to get in the mind of a free-thinker and create a non-system way (philosophy) of taking on the busy schedule.  So, those who already reject me for being “chart-y” give it a shot anyway, and/or come back next week.

Let’s lay the cards out on the table right away–we  (Youth Pastors/Leaders) want to do well, we want to please others, we want others to like us.  But we feel like we’re failing a lot of the people a lot of the time.  It seems, as a Youth Leader (whether paid or not) that ministry never ends and there is always someone else we can be reaching out to, discipling, blessing or keeping off our backside.  Toby’s Mom wonders why you’re not giving Toby individual attention; the board member wonders why he didn’t see your truck at the office “at all” on Thursday?  Mr. Gregory emailed you about the most trivial theological discrepancy “he heard” you taught his daughter last Sunday. Unfortunately this may be your life:

Why didn’t you return my email?… Where are your receipts?… When is camp?… How come we didn’t do more songs last night?… Why do we sing so much?… Can you fill-in for me this Sunday and preach?… We used to have 40 at youth group, why are there only 32 now?… Toby didn’t know about the mission trip application deadline, can he still turn in his form?… Honey, how many nights are you going to be out this week?… Daddy, you went to Toby’s game, how come you didn’t come to my spelling bee?

Jesus.  Will. You. Please. Return.  NOW?

I am praying for you.  I’ve been there.  I want to help.  This week I’ll present one possible help: become a little more task-oriented by creating a pretty simple system that helps you keep things in place.  The reality, this is not a fix-all, but I hope it creates a little rhythm in your life and will help you see when and where you do and do not have margin in your life. Essentially, I hope it gives you a little more of a helicopter view of your ministry/church life and could possibly give you freedom to say the words that you (I) need to say a little more often: “No” and “Help.”

The following are some suggestions to give yourself a little overview of your ministry life and the landscape of the year, it’s just the first of a two step process for the day (be patient).

  • Create a list of the “majors” in your ministry (sacred cows and regularly scheduled programs): This list should include youth group night, Sunday school times, small group time, all the normal camps or retreats you do, etc. You’ll probably add to this list as you think through the following lists as well…
  • Make a separate list of your typical weekly meetings: This list may include staff meetings, one-on-ones, network meetings, etc.
  • Jot down a third list of the weekly tasks that are obvious to you: You need time to study for messages, time to return calls, plan for programs, set up chairs, powerpoint creation, etc.
  • Write down (4th list) the things you like to avoid that take time (that is, if they haven’t already been listed above): For me this was stuff like data entry, return phone calls (I’m much better with email), reports for committees or elders, financial matters, etc.
  • Create a 5th list of the spiritual and relational stuff you wish you had more time to do: This list, for me, would have included more prayer time, personal normal sabbath, more prayer time, long term study for a teaching series, time of being mentored (not just mentoring others), more prayer time, personal evangelism, more prayer time.

Now that you’re overwhelmed again with all the stuff you can/should/need to to, you’re going to create a chart that helps you to see that some, even most, of the stuff can get done if you’re smart about where you place these items in your chart (as you add them to your chart, scratch them off your lists).

A couple tips:

  1. Be realistic… I have friends who love to study the Word.  In fact, I love to study the Word.  But the reality is, I couldn’t be effective at being a Youth Pastor if I was spending 10-12 hours on each talk.  I typically had 2 or 3 messages each week (not including the semi-regularly scheduled preaching in “Big Church”).  I would have had to neglect other areas of ministry–namely shepherding people– if I were to spend that much time on each talk.  The same could be said for other areas, not just messages.  So, be realistic about how much time you actually need to spend on emails, financial matters and messages.
  2. Understand your season… If you’re creating this chart while in the midst of planning a camp, retreat or mission, you’re probably overwhelmed with how long things take. You may want to wait until after the major event to give yourself a more realistic view. In addition, understand that this chart is just an overview, not a “have to” list.  This is YOUR chart, it can change and it isn’t a legalistic formula (I hope).
  3. Don’t celebrate your busyness… You are going to have to come to the realization that you simply can’t do it all, your above created lists may be so long that an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper isn’t even big enough for your Sunday tasks.  This is when you need counsel. And probably counseling. Seriously, have someone help you pare down your list/chart.  Don’t be the Pied Piper and try to do it all yourself.  Begin to recruit others around you to do some of the stuff you don’t like or aren’t good at.

StudentMinAdminPlanner (larger view)

In Word, Pages or even Excel, create for yourself a simple chart, like the one above, where you plug in those lists that you’ve created.  Take this bad-boy to church, give one to your spouse and begin to operate with it as a bit of a check-list.  In a couple weeks you’ll see that you need to make some changes or perhaps you’ll find that you’re not quite the ANALytical thinker and need more of a “philosophical” approach that I’ll attempt to take a crack at next week.

Last… remember you’re called to minister to students, leaders and parents.  This is a great calling. I am excited that you’ve been called to it and even though the words don’t come often enough, I’ll say them again.  Thank you!

Grace,

Brian

Thanks to Wescott for letting me adapt the simple framework of his chart for this blog post.

A Few Random iPhone Shots

Brian Aaby Leave a comment

It had been some time since I last did a sync between my iPhone and my mac… however, the other day I didn’t have my phone charger with me and I needed to charge via usb off my computer, so the iPhone did a sync.  This gave me the opportunity to upload the MANY pictures that my kids have taken with my phone (mainly silly videos actually) and the few pictures I had taken.

Our “main” shots are taken with a regular camera, but every now and then we don’t have it with us and so the iPhone will have to do.  Here are a few random shots that I haven’t posted about yet… thought someone might enjoy.

Elisabeth and I were able to get away for two nights (3 full days) to Victoria.  We were blessed with a gift a couple years ago and finally were able to take advantage of it… Stayed at the Empress Hotel and enjoyed much down-time.

Immediately after Victoria I took off for SoCal.  And you know what’s in Southern California right?  Yep, In-N-Out… so above is a shot of my Double Double from an In-N-Out in Escondido that opened THAT day!  This was a first for me, I was around for the grand opening!

Audrey and a bunch of other kids in her Sunday School class were called up on the platform a couple Sundays ago to be used as a plea for more help with the Children’s Ministry.  Great job standing there and looking cute Audrey!

Last (actually first in the timeline), we did our annual trip to the Puyallup Fair.  This could have been our shortest trip to the Fair ever.  It was a sunny and 75º Day (and very very busy), however, as soon as we walked through the gates we recognized a newly opened Scone line, we waited 30 seconds in line there.  After the scones we went to the Ferris Wheel (well first we waited in a three minute line for tickets)… the Ferris Wheel line was about 4 minutes before we got on.  After the Wheel, we went to the Young Life pie booth… no line.  So within 30 minutes we did the three things we intended to do.  Fun times and a great picture of my girls on the Ferris Wheel.

Grace,

Brian