MIM EZINE, APRIL 15, 2005

CONTENTS

– Transforming YOUth – A Cause Worthy of Their Lives: The Lifelong Impact of Short-term Youth Missions

– Login Leadership  – Using the Coach Approach in Leadership

– Book Review – Crucified in the Media

– Classified Ads

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Spiritual Gifts Questionnaire

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For more information on ordering visit our spiritual gift inventory page below. Ordering info on the Spiritual Gifts Questionnaire

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Transforming YOUTH -- A Cause Worthy of Their Lives: The Lifelong Impact of Short-term Youth Missions

By Shane W. Parker

“So, what are you doin’ this summer?”  In the next month, this question will be asked of millions of students.  The beach will be in sight, and your summer programming schedule will be in full swing.  If your youth program includes short-term missions, then your students may respond with, “I’m going on a mission trip.” 

Whether you have taken students on short-term mission trip before, or you are thinking of going for the first time, there is one important thing to consider—Why?  Why do you spend thousands of dollars and months, if not a full year, planning these adventures?  Is it to give them an exciting place to go?  Is it to get them to focus on someone other than themselves for a week?  Is it what you have always done, so you don’t want to disappoint them?  While all of these reasons are good, the primary objective for mobilizing youth should be to make “World Christians.”  Paul Borthwick, adjunct professor of missions at Gordon College, and one of the prominent writers in the area of youth missions, states that:

The youth leader’s challenge is to produce young people who are thinking about a world beyond themselves.  To be a teenage ‘world Christian’ is to be uncharacteristically unselfish with time, service, money, and prayer.  It will mean concern for people who do not know Christ and a willingness to go beyond the secure peer group into the ‘unknown’ of outreach. (Borthwick 1988, 39)

He goes on to write:

The primary goal of youth mission teams is to plant within the students seeds of desire that will help them grow into cross-cultural servants of Jesus Christ.  By exposing high school students to the goals, visions and experiences of mission life, we can influence them as they make plans for their future education and careers. (Borthwick 1988, 169)

The idea that youth mission is an attempt to develop World Christians is a lifelong view.  The intention to make World Christians sees the benefit of youth missions both now, and when they teach the generations to follow.  Let’s face it though, many times we do well just to plan and organize a mission trip, let alone take an intentional approach.  Here are a few practical ways that you can begin to “make World Christians.”

First, make sure that students have examples to follow.  Borthwick says that “youth are looking for a life to emulate.  Youth leaders, teachers, parents, pastors, Christian nationals, and missionaries need to present integrated, authentic, consistent lives as world Christians for youth to emulate” (Borthwick 1988, 53).  This should happen year-round, as well as, on the mission field.  Students need adults and peers that will be examples of the attitudes and actions you want to see in them.  If there is no one in your ministry who fits that bill, then take a few adults on a mission trip.  There is a strong likelihood that they will return with a passion for global work.

Second, make it hard for students to go.  This one may seem a little out of place, but humor me for a moment.  We all recognize that when we work hard for something we appreciate it all the more.  This is no less true in mission participation.  There should be requirements for each youth mission participant to meet, in order to be apart of the team. 

For example, students should have to participate in training meetings, local service, and earn a portion of the money for the trip.  Also, students should study the people and culture of the region where they are going, and be assigned missions reading.  This may sound like a great deal to do, but your students will be better equipped to minister and will have a greater appreciation for the mission.

Third, make sure students see the short-term trip as part of a bigger plan.  Unfortunately, for many youth ministries, the summer missions trip is never seen as having any direct correlation to what goes on the remainder of the year.  When students see these trips as “a vacation where I got to do something good for someone else,” they miss the bigger issue of global evangelization and their place in that effort. 

If you want to make World Christians, then systematically teach on biblical missions and the importance for their lives.  This does not mean that every lesson you teach is on Matthew 28:18-20.  It does, however, mean there is a consistent mission focus in the content of your teaching and programming.

Students may look like they are self-absorbed and uncaring about the world around them.  This is primarily because no one challenges them with a cause that seems worthy enough.  Students hunger for a cause bigger than themselves.  What larger cause can there be than the unwavering advance of the Truth of Jesus to the ends of the earth, for the eternal joy of men, women, and children?  This is a cause worthy of their lives, not just their summer.

Source: Borthwick, Paul. 1988. Youth and mission. Waynesboro , GA : OM Literature.

Shane Parker has been involved in multiple areas of student ministry for close to a decade. He has served as a Student Minister in North and South Carolina, and as a student event and conference speaker in the Carolinas, Tennessee, Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Washington, Utah, Wyoming, and Southeast Asia. He is a graduate of Columbia International University (B.A.); Columbia Seminary (M.A.); and Southeastern Seminary (M.Div.). Shane and his wife, Lydia, reside in Louisville, Kentucky, where he is the Student Minister at Gardenside Baptist Church in Lexington. He has a central passion to equip students, and student pastors, for the uncompromising glorification of God in intensive study and ministry. If you would like to schedule Shane for an event, or just talk about life and ministry, you may reach him by e-mail: swp76@msn.com. 

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Login Leadership --  Using the Coach Approach in Leadership

By Tom Hanover                                          

“I just can’t seem to find time.”  I was on the phone with my coach.  I had engaged him to help me prioritize my calendar commitments.  I wasn’t exercising regularly.  I wasn’t reading as much as I wanted.  I wasn’t taking regular time off.  A strong “J” on the Myers-Briggs, I even make to-do lists for my day off.

He asked, “Why not?”

I listed my litany of excuses.  I’m too tired at the end of the day.  Sometimes it is late when I get home.  There are always phone calls to return and people to see.  If you are in some form of ministry leadership, you probably understand.

“Why don’t you schedule time for exercise, for reading, for time off just like you schedule everything else?” he said.

I really didn’t have an answer.  That is why I need a coaching relationship with someone who asks the irritating questions that I wrestle with and wish he didn’t ask.

Tom Bandy writes, “Coaching is not really about winning.  It is about growing.  Great coaching has more to do with losing without despair and doing better the next time without naiveté.  Great coaching has more to do with clarity of purpose than achieving victory.”  (Coaching Change, p. 12)

In ministry leadership the leader is often in charge of others; either paid staff or volunteers.  How the leader supervises and directs others determines how effective the team will be in accomplishing their goals of mission and service.

The “coach approach” is one dimension of leading others.  It is the pure coaching relationship.  The coach has no supervisory relationship or influence in the ministry environment.  He can presents an objective point of view from outside the organization.

However, leaders can use some of these approaches to coach staff and/or volunteers and grow their leadership effectiveness.  The goal of a ministry leader is not measured by what he/she accomplishes, but rather by what is accomplished through others.  This does not excuse manipulation or exploitation of others.  Helping others grow into their own God-given potential is the main focus.

Let me suggest just two steps I keep coming back to as I seek to grow in my supervision of others:  listening and asking questions.

In my leadership role I am often called on to assess and sort out conflicts.  It carries impact for a church’s health and vitality.  Often it also impacts a pastor’s employment and a family’s life in a community.  I do not believe I have ever heard a story of conflict with a simple solution.  Most of them are tremendously complex.  If there are 10 people in a meeting sharing their perceptions, I expect to get 23 different stories.

My first priority is to listen.  Listening creates the opportunity for trust.  I cannot lead, coach, or mentor, if the other party does not trust or respect my experience or judgment.

John Maxwell writes:  “All good mentoring relationships begin with a personal relationship.”  (Developing the Leaders Around You, p. 92)  “To build relationships, begin by listening to people’s life story, their journey so far.”  (Developing the Leaders Around You, p. 93)  So, even if I have heard this story or something like it several times, I pull out my pad of paper and begin writing down the comments people share.

Writing helps me focus on the speaker and process -- what he/she is saying.  It also provides a written record of our conversation.  But perhaps most importantly, it shows the person who is speaking that what they say is important.  I am listening to what they have to say.

I have found it rather useless to argue.  While in rare occasions I might make a point in logical debate, I usually lose in trust and leadership capacity.  I work hard to affirm the other person’s right to an opinion and perception without necessarily agreeing to the content of their particular slant.  There are always other sides to the story.  I have found that even hindsight is not always 20/20.

The second habit I work to cultivate is to ask questions, specifically questions that seek to clarify expectations or clarify issues or clarify one’s focus.  Most people have the resources within them or near to them to solve most of their problems.  What they need is someone to help them clarify a plan of action or points of decision. 

Remember three simple rules:  1) Don’t give advice; 2) Don’t tell people something they can discover on their own and 3) Don’t fix the problem for them. 

Ultimately, coaching is about helping people think for themselves within the context of relationship.”  (Robert E. Logan and Sherilyn Carlton, Coaching 101, p. 40)

In supervisory relationships there are limits to the coach approach.  When performance needs to be evaluated or employment needs to be terminated, the coach approach is not helpful.  A supervisor needs to make decisions.

And lastly, as a point of personal confession, remember grace.  Even in the most conflicted, confrontational moments Jesus portrayed grace.  He spoke the truth, but he always exhibited the fruit of self-control.  Responding in truth in an angry or reckless manner often destroys trust and ends a relationship of influence.  

How can you use the “coach approach” in your leadership?

Tom Hanover has served in a variety of pastoral leadership roles for over 30 years, the last four as a District Superintendent supervising the ministries of more than 100 pastors and churches in southwest Ohio. He has a BA (cum laude) from Taylor University, the MDiv and DMin degrees from United Theological Seminary in Dayton. Contact Tom at thanover@pastors-study.com

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Book Review – Crucified in the Media

By C. Marvin Pate and Sheryl L. Pate, Baker Books, 2005, ISBN 0801065488, 222 pages

Reviewed by Teena M. Stewart

Published author C. Marin Pate and his wife Sheryl L Pate team up to examine some of the popular books, movies, and archeological discoveries that have brought Christ into the media limelight in recent years.

C. Marvin Pate holds a Ph.D. in biblical studies and has served as a pastor, college professor, and most recently an instructor at Baptist University .  His wife, Sheryl L. Pate is a best-selling author with a BA and MA in education.

The authors begin by explaining the Jesus Seminar – a group of eighty biblical scholars who convened twice yearly from 1985 -1996 to offer a new translation and commentary on the four New Testament Gospels coupled with the lesser known Gospels of Peter and Thomas. These are not found in the Protestant Bible. From this seminar sprang two controversial books:  The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus and The Acts of Jesus: What Did Jesus Really Do? The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus.

The Pates explain the liberal beliefs of these scholars and how the scholars arrived at their conclusions, comparing their findings and historical documentation to more credible biblical scholastic findings and historical documentation. 

How did we come to accept the particular New Testament books that are included in our Protestant Bibles and how were these canonized (screened and accepted as legitimate, authoritative holy works?) For example, the Gospel of Thomas is a Gnostic writing. Gnosticism refers to the knowledge that people are spiritual, and not physical in original.  It devalues the body, denying the humanity and incarnation of Jesus. The Gospel of Thomas is claimed to have been written by the apostle Thomas and includes 114 sayings of Jesus.  The Pate’s claim that in order to hold a proper perspective on Christ, we must use the New Testament books as our source of authority and not Gnostic books such as the Gospel of Thomas.

The Apocryphal Gospels, writings that imitate the books of the New Testament, were produced from the second century up to the middle ages.  They were written under the assumed names of the twelve apostles and include books such as the Gospel of Peter, Gospel of Hebrews and many other manuscripts.  These claim to be the missing pieces from Jesus’ silent years, from his childhood and from the times when there was nothing written about his activities. We can benefit from learning about these books because they allow us to compare the acknowledged books of the New Testament.  The authors prove  the Apocryphal books to be counterfeits.

In addition to these books, Crucified in the Media also examines archeological finds such as the Shroud of Turin and the Bones of James, the Brother of Jesus. They also research the validity of the claims of the Davinci Code, the Passion of the Christ (and who killed Jesus), the Resurrection, the Lord of the Rings, the Bible Code, and Pluralism (is Jesus the only way to salvation).

I’ve given the book a moderate to complex rating.  It is an intriguing read, especially for those captivated by the media coverage of various topics related to Christ.  The authors thoroughly document and back up their arguments, which is necessary to prove their point. At times this documentation and historical data become somewhat tedious as the reader tries to put all of the pieces, and their significance into place.   The book is an excellent source for those who wish to know the validity of these claims and it would make a fascinating study resource for church leaders who wish to address some of these hot topics and tie it into a gospel message.

Order Crucified in the Media