Josh's First Goal

Goal:  In the last year, our family life has become very full - with having two children under age 2, my work schedule is intensive, active in ministries, and Natalie has returned to work (evening shifts) which leaves me on my own with the kids.  It is sometimes overwhelming, so I need to take a true inventory of what we have going on as a family and see if it is manageable as is, or if we can do some things to simplify.  Essentially, we need to BUDGET our time!

Action Steps:

1. Sit down with Natalie and write out our "typical" monthly MUST schedule.  It will include my usual work schedule, church activities, ministry prep time, blogging etc.  Basically, the things we can't avoid doing.  We can't include Natalie's schedule because it changes, but we can estimate how many evenings she usually works.
2. Then we need to determine how many date nights per month we need to have to maintain a healthy connection in our marriage.
3. This should show us how much available time is left in our time budget.  I know that when I have all those individual tasks floating around in my mind, I get overwhelmed.  But in actuality, many of those things don't require that much time.  So this will show me how much free time I actually have. 
4. If our budget shows that I don't have any free time to myself, then I need to find a way to add that.  I know that I can get a couple hours to myself each week by having the Roux's watch the girls.  If necessary, I will schedule that time in.

Ch.1

I read the first few chapters a few months ago and then went back and skimmed super fast again tonight before posting.

I'm really surprised by a lot of the statistics. The fact that about 2/3's of teens talk about their faith with their friends and etc. but yet their faith is skin deep and it fades like it wasn't even there. After reading the chapter I think that they have a lot of religion without a connection/relationship. They seem to cover the field (teens) with exposure to religion but there isn't a life change.

I know we talk about a parent's faith can't get them into heaven, they must make their own choice.

This exposure they are getting to their teens without conviction/change gets me thinking about my thoughts about teens at our church/community. I guess I think about it frequently that all we have to do is get them in the door. I think that way because I know God is here at our church and with those in our church, and I trust those in leadership and in positions in ministry that they are being led by God. When they are being faithful to His calling, lives are changed. I know we must go outside the walls of the church but I feel I can/will influence teens the most at church because our teens will be the ones that influence their generation. I can teach, be and example, and lead those in our church to help influence those around them.

I hope that made sense because I am tired, both the kids are crying, and the TV is really loud.

January reading - Kristie

Intro and Chapter 1:
Two words can easily describe my thoughts as I read these two sections. For the intro the word: sobering. I have heard before that the churches in England were ‘empty’ but I had no idea of the severity of the statistics. Even if there are some things in this book that may be controversial; if these statistics don’t rattle our cages then why would we even make an effort.

The word for chapter 1 is the exact word the author starts with: epidemic. This is truly what it is. We live in such a self-centered world. So how does a person fight an epidemic? For a medical epidemic to be stopped, people have to become immune to the disease; either through a vaccine or through a low level exposure to develop a natural immunity. However, there is not a vaccine for a spiritual epidemic; and that is exactly what the authors are describing. So how do we stop this; the statistics can seem daunting and overwhelming, but if we use them as a tool, and not let them be prophetic; then we are on the way to stopping the epidemic. First we have to keep our spiritual immunity strong; so we can help others that can so easily fall into this. I look forward to the rest of this book, my family has experienced this with Teresa (Tess) but we (myself and Keevin) are determined to not let her become a ’statistic’. And I want to be effective in keeping the AYM students from becoming negative statistics.

Just to clarify when I referred to spiritual immunity it does not mean being immune from spiritual things but rather from the worldly things. Sorry for any confusion.

Theresa's AYM goal

My 3 month goal is to become a better small group/life group leader.

Action Steps:
1. I will find a book about the topic.
2. I will journal ideas as I read.
3. I will meet with my co-leader to talk about implementing some new ideas

Help with Goal Setting

I should have thought of this earlier - but here are several examples of the kinds of things that you may want to consider for setting goals.  I know that's a tricky process.  This may get the "juices flowing". 

• Time management with specific projects
• Developing an annual schedule for a specific area of ministry you’re leading
• Creativity in leading your Ardent life group (can include schedule) or other group
• Taking someone else under your wing in ministry
• Improve communication with those you work with
• Stretch yourself in learning about a specific topic that you’re struggling with or have always wanted to learn about
• Find a new way to serve the leader you’re working with (I love this one – haha) to add some variety and help them out
• Take better care of yourself by changing bad habits, eating better, getting more sleep, etc.

If you need help with action steps, let me know!!

Angela's January Blog

I read that chapter in one sitting the day you gave it to me. I love to read – and reading with purpose is great! So, I was shocked to say the least at the statistics. But, then I looked at my own family: Niece and nephew are 27 and 21 and had a very good Christian upbringing and both quite active in church through the HS years. Now neither one of them really has a church home and don’t go unless they are home. Sad. My own daughters are 19 and 25 and they too do not go to church. I think they use me as their connection to the Lord. So, once again I am truly sad!!! I want to read on to see what we can do to help change this.

Annette's January Blog

Already Gone:  I knew this book was a bit contraversial (that's partially why I picked it).  ;o)  But whether we agree or not, I believe it's going to provoke some examination of our thinking, and some great discussions.  I'm always a fan of learning something new and allowing it to challenge what I believe.  It will either reveal areas of weakness, or it will affirm that I'm on the right track. 

I knew that the European church was in trouble, but I didn't realize the degree.  I've heard these statistics before, but they always alarm me.  Especially those that address the people who grew up in church and walk away.  Where is the disconnect happening??  That's what I'm really interested to learn - I look forward to seeing what they came up with.

AYM Goal Setting - Kristie

March 31, 2010; Goal setting - not something I do well! However, with Pastor Annette’s help, I feel I have a goal set for this first quarter.
My goal is to have a higher quality of devotional/study time.

Action steps:
1. Set aside a specific time for my devotional/study time. Mornings are not good for me so I have set the alarm on my phone for a time in the evening, so that even if I have fallen asleep in my recliner it will wake me up and I can go study. After 2.5 -3 months prayerfully this will be one of my good habits.
2. Engage more on Sunday mornings. Sometimes with the fill in the blank style of notes, I find myself not listening to the message as close as I should be. So I am going to buy a notebook and start writing my own notes like I used to.
3. Find an accountability partner, to follow up with me to see if I have done my part to achieve my personal study time.
4. Maybe try to do some topical bible studies instead of just ‘reading’.

Josh's PDYM Review

Sorry I am one of the few stragglers to post my review. I joined the process late and didn’t get a book until late, then had to give it back early. So, here is what I have to say about what it did read:


I really don’t like to read, so getting my read anything BESIDES GUITAR STUFF is difficult. I thought that it was an easy read in the fact it flowed well from one topic to another. I liked how he separated items out into tools and other stories. Those are the types of things I seem to remember. There were 10 tools, I don’t remember them off the top of my head and I don’t have a book to help this review along either. For the most part I thought the ideas were practical.

A few items I remember from the beginning of the book were talking about a mission statement. It seemed that he focused a lot about that and made several references to it later. It makes sense why he would put such a huge emphasis on this idea. If one does not have proper focus you will ALWAYS be off the mark. Sometimes you may come close due to random luck but that isn’t what we are here for. We are here to be lead by God and the Holy Spirit. That really stuck for me as I am a very structured person in general and I think over the last several months I have lost some needed focus. I wonder why I feel so distant from God at times and all I have to do is look at the basics (for the most part); how much time am I spending in the word and prayer. For me, it seems that it isn’t the time in prayer but the quality of prayer that tends to lack at times.

I know I am supposed to list 3 things but I really am having a brain block. I feel that maintaining proper focus will make a huge difference in my walk with Christ. I know we are supposed to but it’s easy to lose focus at times, especially when things get so busy.

After reading some of the other posts Miss Turner spoke of not comparing ourselves to others. I think this is a huge thing I have struggled with throughout my life. Mark also talked on this quite a bit one of the nights he spoke. I actively have to rebuke thoughts about comparing myself to others or the take hold and weeks later find myself getting more a more frustrated. I am a good analyzer, so, I feel it is easy for me to both look at the positive and negative aspects of things in a situation and on a personal level. This is what I was trained to do for the last 6.5 years in school and the last year on the job. That skill can either be great or be a big hindrance if not kept in control. The hard thing is when I see the great qualities in other and wonder why I can’t do that myself. In the end, I know I have the keep this in check to, not only to walk in accordance with what Christ wants for me but also to allow God to impact as many people as possible through me.

Peace Out!

Steve's PDYM Book Review

My perspective on this book is a little different because I originally read it when I was servant leader for Ardent. So the impact from the book is a little different for me. I believe the book The Purpose Driven Youth Ministry was a Godsend for me. I had just stepped into the role as servant leader for our youth ministry when I found this book just laying there in our former youth pastor’s office. Our full time youth pastor had moved on to other endeavors in his life and I felt I could offer the leadership our ministry needed at that time. But there was a problem, I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t go to Bible college and didn’t have any type of ministry training. I went to a state school and graduated with a Criminal Justice degree and most of my experience had been working with criminal kids. Basically, I had the heart to minister to students, but no practical training.

So, as you can see I needed a little help. This book gave me structure and direction and it really gave me a starting point. Most people who have been living in evangelical bubble has heard the words "purpose driven" and understand what this phrase is based off of. It is based off the five fold purpose found in Matthew. What I found the most helpful about the five purposes is it gave me a foundation. It gave me a way to measure if I was fulfilling those purpose. It was kind of like a gauge for me. As I progressed in the ministry I could back and look at the book to see if I was following the purposes. It helped me come up with a purpose statement so I could convey the vision for the youth ministry to my youth sponsors and students. Most of all it helped lay a foundation from the beginning.

It gave direction on how to develop leaders and how to ministry to different type of students. It also gave practical advice on how to organize my time. It also gave ways on how to cast vision for the youth ministry. I could go on and on with all the tips, instructions, how to’s and ways of doing ministry that the book offered, but I would end up writing a book. This book, other than the Bible, is a youth ministry training guide. If you are entering youth ministry or have been doing it for years, it is must read. It will really help with purpose and direction.

Annette's 3 Month Goal (& Example for you)

Goal for March 31st:  Plan out my own leadership development for 2010.

Action Steps:

1. Request transcript from Trinity.  DONE (2/25/10)
2. Apply to take correspondence courses to pursue my state ministerial credentials.
3. Select 6-8 books to read this year and order them.  (selected not ordered, need $$)
4. Talk to Pastor about accountability in my own leadership development.

P.S. Use this format for your own goals.  They should be measurable - not too abstract.  The format is the example - NOT the goal.  I am a full-time pastor - your goal should match up to your leadership role.  Some examples might be 1) establish a consistent time for personal devotions & reading, 2) volunteer to help teach a Discipleship Institute section, 3) plan schedule for Under Oath or your life group for this year.  Hopefully this is helpful in setting your goal.

P.P.S. When you write a new post, add LABELS to it.  At the bottom of the screen, you'll see them.  Make your name the first one - then choose from those that are already there (don't add new labels). This makes it easy to find specific posts later when we have our conferences. 

Final Review - PDYM

Well the book is finished.  What a GREAT youth ministry tool.  I so appreciated his down-to-earth perspective.  And even though there are tools that he mentions that are beyond our resources, he's also very careful to mention that you can do without it. 

I was relieved while reading the section on leaders.  That's pretty much a mirror of how I've viewed team building in ministry.  It's nice to be affirmed by someone with a successful and fruitful ministry.  :o)  I liked the 10 step process he mentions.  We basically do most of those things!  I think I may refine our process a little bit for future leaders.  And I like that he says current leaders and students should help invite new leaders!!

I have to admit I skimmed the Peseverance chapter.  Confession...  It wasn't anything new, but again it was very well articulated! I've read a lot on this topic this year with Signet.  The discipline info was awesome. Very practical and scripturally based.  I know that I will refer back to this book often.  I would also highly recommend it to anyone in youth ministry.

Wrapping Up PDYM

Okay leaders! We were scheduled to have finished this book by the end of December.  :o)  So that means I need to see a blog entry from all the guys on the book.  Please give me a basic "book review".  Include 3 things that stood out to you as principles that you will personally try to implement and why.  Ladies, if you would like to, you could give one final book review - just give your overall feeling about the book or about the last couple of reading segments.