Thus Far...

2 months and 1 week.

This is not the duration of time since the Royals last won a baseball game, even though that would be a good guess. This is actually how long I have been on my internship. I am about 1/6 the way done, and it is flying by. I just wanted to take some time to write out some things that I have learned for the first time and other things that I have been reminded of while working at Southeast. This list is not exclusive...it is just what I can remember on a Monday morning.

Volunteers can make or break a youth ministry. I called my brother, Jim, the other day just to catch up, and this subject came up. During his internship in Oklahoma, he also was confronted with this truth. Here are some qualities that make up great youth leaders:

• They are selfless. They are not in the ministry to for themselves but for the students. A lot of people begin to help out with a ministry with an agenda, but it is so great to have a person who serves for the purpose of giving glory to God and not for themselves.
• They work hard. When I think about how I get paid to serve God, it blows my mind how fantastic youth leaders are when they serve for the soul purpose of serving God. I'm not in the ministry to make money, if so I'm in the wrong profession. But volunteers who work hard are great assets to the ministry.
• They are good people. It is never fun to work with people who you don't like. When you are able to recruit leaders who are good at working with students and love Jesus PLUS they are good friendly people, your ministry will just take off. Jesus said that unity is the pathway that leads to evangelism in John 17:21, so when the students see the unity and closeness of the youth ministry team it leads to a healthier ministry where evangelism can occur.

I pray for guts to live like Jesus. This might sound a little odd. I am not literally praying for the bowels and entrails of God's Son, but having the fortitude to live my life the way Jesus lived His life on earth. He did not give into the ways and temptations of this world, but he was focused on completing the will of God. I am reminded daily the need to live like a man of God in a world corrupted by sin, and I cannot do this by myself. I need God's Spirit and strength the have the guts to live like Jesus.

Be Me. I am working with so many gifted people here at Southeast Christian Church. I work with a guy named Cody Walker who is one of the most relational guys I have ever met. He can walk up to a complete stranger and strike up a conversation. Matt Reagan has a lot of confidence in what he does, yet he is one of the most humble guys I know. Jon McCallon is so creative. He is bursting at the seams with creativity. I look at all of these guys, and I envy all of them. They are doing great things for God in the field of youth ministry, but they all do ministry differently yet they are all successful. I just need to be reminded to by myself when it comes to serving God in youth ministry. I can't pretend to be Matt Reagan or Cody Walker; I just need to be Charlie Landis.

Definition of Success. The youth minister I'm working under gave me a great definition of success. He said, "Success is living faithfully to God." I know I could easily get caught up in the numbers in my ministry or the amount of pats on the back, but the true test of success is to see how faithful you are being to God in your ministry. What does this success look like? I think it looks different for different ministries. So I think it is important to always be asking the question, "Is our ministry successful?"

Deflect Glory to God. I love working with little kids! I was actually going to go into children ministry before I decided at the end of my sophomore year to go into student ministry. I have been working in the nursery the past two weekends, and I had about four people come up to me and tell me how great I am with kids. There are other situations where people tell me that I am good at this or good at that, and it is such a huge temptation to get a big head. But I've learned to start deflecting the glory to God, because everything I do should be to His glory...not my own. I still struggle with this whole not-hogging-the-glory-thing. I can be so selfish, but I've learned that I could not even do ministry if it wasn't for God's sustaining power and love.

Importance of Leadership. I have always that leadership was not the big of a deal, especially in ministry. I actually had to take a class at Ozark called Leadership in Ministry, and I paid no attention at all in that class because I did not see how it was relevant for me. I really did not see myself ever becoming the head pastor at a church, so I didn't think it was important for me to be a leader. Oh, how I was greatly mistaken. Leadership is an essential to a successful youth ministry. A youth minister needs to be able to lead his youth sponsors and the students in a direction towards Christ. If there is no leadership in the ministry, it is just a bunch of programs and dollars wasted. I have tried to become more educated on this whole idea of leadership, so I have started to read some blogs and books. A guy named Tony Morgan has a great blog on leadership, and I have found it to be very helpful.

Stay tuned for my next post. If you are a man, you will definitely want to tune in. I will be discussing a method us men can begin to use to decrease women's desire to shop. Until then, live easy...and die hard.