My name is Steve not Mr. Wilson!

/ youthguysteve / Leave a comment

So it happens everytime I meet someone new.  Well at least at Church.  Actually it never seems to happen in public. At Church and especially school people want to call me Mr. Wilson.  My normal response to this is turn around and11947697_1147243708622293_2077133576210456602_n look for my father. (Actually I look for my grandpa but since he is with Jesus I assume they must be talking about my Dad)  You see I really do want you and your children to call me Steve. In fact to the students who have known me best it is often Steve-OOOOOOOOOOO in a very loud voice…but I digress. I have a reason I want to be called Steve and not Mr. Wilson. By the way it has nothing to do with not wanting to be old.

So why do I do it?  The reason I want to be called Steve is because I want to have a different relationship with you that Mr. Wilson can’t. I do it because I want to have a relationship like Jesus did with his disciples.  I want you to have a relationship with me that goes beyond authority figure or someone you can’t talk with. No I am not your best friend but I am also not your authoritative principal. I want you to know I care for you. I want your child to know I care for them.  I never want them to be scared to come to me and ask the most ridiculous question in the world or tell me their deepest darkest secret.  I want them to know we are walking as disciples together.  We are equals in faith and by calling me Steve I think it shows we are on an equal plain and able to talk with.

I know many parents who teach there children to call adults by Mr. or Mrs. as a sign of respect.  I do it for my own kids but here is the thing.  I believe it is respectful for you and your children to call me Steve because I have told you to do it. So please don’t get mad at Jimmy or Jenny for calling me Steve. I told them to.  I wanted to be in relationship as fellow disciples.  I have never heard of Jesus telling people to call him Mr. Jesus in fact he seemed to go out of his way to get them to call Him Jesus.

Disclaimer: This is not a post about anyone. This is my thing.  If you want to be called Mr. Blah by all means do that.  I am not trying to call others to do the same…Well I guess I am but not with the Mr. or Mrs. thing just the be in relationship with each other thing, sharing Jesus.

Sleeping on an air mattress, following Jesus can be uncomfortable!

/ youthguysteve / Leave a comment

wpid-wp-1441706854917.jpgI miss my bed.  I miss how it makes me feel.  I would like just once to wake up in my own house on my own bed next to my wife and not have a kink in my back and neck. My new chiropractor loves this by the way. (Not really but we have gotten to know each other rather well these last few weeks based on the number of times he has popped my body back in place.)  Needless to say it has been a uncomfortable few weeks.

Beyond the aches and pains I started at a new ministry.  I traveled back and forth to sell and buy a house.  I have lived with my in-laws for almost 6 weeks now.  I went from a 5 minute commute to work to over 45 minutes when traffic is good. I went from knowing everyone’s names to knowing almost no ones.(cue Cheers music)  OH and my wife is living in Grand Rapids and i see her on the weekends.  Needless to say everything is different.  Life has become uncomfortable and I am ok with it.

I do like life to be comfortable.  I like to have a routine. I like things to be predictable. I really like to sleep in my own bed with my wife.  However being uncomfortable has helped me know Jesus.  Over 3 months ago my life was flipped on end.  I said goodbye to some amazing people.  I am serving in a new ministry.  It isn’t comfortable but it is exactly where God needs me to be.  Worship, prayer, and everything else is in my faith life is different.  Jesus is in control and for that I am grateful.

So why bring up being uncomfortable. Is it so you can feel sorry for me? Is it so you can comment on this post and say we are praying for you or can we help? (please do pray for me and my children.) Really that isn’t the point. The point is being uncomfortable in this faith walk is a good thing.  It reminds me of God and His work in my life.  It reminds me that no matter how much I have planned and how comfortable I am He seems to find a way to make me uncomfortable so I can trust in Him, so I can follow Him.

When we get comfortable I think we tend to trust in ourselves.  We trust in our choices, and abilities instead of trusting in Him.  We trust our good fortune, or luck.  We trust in everything but Jesus.  We look to everything but Jesus. Here is the thing. We need Jesus.  We need Him in His word, and sacrament. We need Him in our prayer life.  We need Him in everything. Being uncomfortable has reminded me of Jesus’ work for me.  Thank you Jesus for reminding me of my need for you.  Thanks for making me uncomfortable!

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV

How can I pray for you? How can I help families see Jesus?

/ youthguysteve / Leave a comment

IMG_0005I must confess my prayer life is not all that good.  I have times when my prayer life is awesome.  Mostly I forget, fall asleep, or just plain don’t have the words.  To be real honest with you all prayer is something I have to structure. I need a purpose.  I need something to be doing.

Here is what I am going to do.  I am going to pray for you.  I want to spend this year in prayer for you.  I want to be in prayer for the families I serve in ministry.  I want to have God work through this means of talking with him so that you may be filled with Jesus.

This is probably the most important thing I can do for the families of the congregation I serve.  I am going to pray for them. No not all of them at once. Not the generic prayer for families each day but individuals.  I am going to pray for just a few each week.  It will probably take me the whole year to get through them all.  At this point I am not sure how many it will be but I plan to pray for 3 families a day.  I want to spend the whole day thinking about those three families and keeping them in constant prayer.  They will get a message from me a week ahead of time letting them know I will be praying for them, and asking if they have any needs.  Then I want to follow up and let them know I prayed for them.  I pray God will allow me to hear of stories of his work in their lives, but if not I want them to know someone cares.  That Jesus loves them.  I will be praying for their requests, but also that their faith may grow, that they would gather at God’s house and hear about Jesus.  I pray Jesus would be a part of their lives.

So what do I ask of you?  Well could you pray for me?  Could you pray I continue to do it.  When I am busy, or tired or lazy help me to continue to do it.  Help me to say nothing is more important than to pray for you.  Let us join together in prayer so that the world may know Jesus.

15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. Ephesians 1:15-16 NIV

Family friendly worship..it is more than Children’s messages!

/ youthguysteve / Leave a comment

DSC_0530So I did a children’s message this past Sunday.  I normally don’t do them in worship.  In fact I try to avoid them.  This past Sunday for a worship service in the park it made a lot of sense to do it.  I think children’s messages have a place in worship services.  I think we shouldn’t do them often. I think for many of us we do them because we think if we want to be family friendly we should do them.  I think this is a mistake. Doing a children’s message doesn’t make one family friendly.  It just can be a neat way to interact with kids in worship. And in a park setting it made a whole lot of sense to share Jesus with them in this way.

I think getting Kids involved in worship is important.  I think we have a whole lot of others ways to do that in a regular worship service that are far better. I think we might be missing the point when we think we are family friendly by doing children’s messages.  You see I think we need to think about children and families as often as possible throughout the whole service not just a three minute moment of cuteness. So here are some things I think we all should think about in worship to help make it more kid and family friendly. I think their are three things we should do to help kids participate more.

First, repetition in important. It allows kids who can’t read to participate. It could be through liturgy, lords prayer, contemporary worship songs that are simple, etc. repetition allows kids to know the words and participate.

Second we should allow kids who are squirmy to participate. Maybe do a confession that allows them to move around the room. Once I had kids bring a rock to the front of the room and drop it in a sand pit.  We were confessing using John chapter 8 as our reference to scripture. Having them move and be involved is important for worship with children.

Third and probably the easiest  way to share Jesus with kids in worship is to use pictures and visuals in worship.  Stained glass was used to tell the story of Jesus. It still is today.  You could use pictures and other visuals on screen or in the bulletin. Visuals give students something to see and focus on with the words. It helps the little ones see Jesus.

Let us all strive to share Jesus with the whole family of faith.  Children’s messages can be good, but we have lots of other ways to be family friendly and share Jesus.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”  Matthew 19:14

Youth and family ministry to 80 year olds…Listening to the stories, being the family of God

/ youthguysteve / Leave a comment

This week I had the joy of sitting with an old friend.  Someone I have known for a little over 5 years who I think of as an amazing grandma in the faith.  I have seen here many times at Church and today I had the privilege and joy of spending just a few moments talking with her at her house as I move away.  I wasn’t planning to see her but I had to make a visit because she had something in needed.  Jesus was at work in all this.  We laughed, we cried, we shared a moment together and she got to unload some of her story I have never heard before.  It was a moving moment and I have to say thank you to Jesus for letting me have a reason to see her one last time. I don’t know if I helped her but I do know I got to be Jesus for her today. It was one of my greatest moments in youth and family ministry.

You heard me right.  Youth ministry isn’t just about talking with teens, or children.  Youth and family ministry is about being in the lives of people.  Being in the lives of the family of faith.  Family and Youth ministry isn’t just about young people, young families, and little children it is about the whole family.  You see our more seasoned members need people to listen to them.  To care for them.  To pray for them.  Our family is bigger than just the young.  Our family is whole of the body of Christ.

For those of you who work in Youth ministry I want to remind you of something so important.  Seek out the seasoned members of your congregation.  Pray with them. Ask them to pray with you. Listen to them, and be there for them. They are a part of the Church as well. They are important to your ministry.  Jesus has allowed me to have some pretty amazing people walk with in my life.  People who wouldn’t be considered kids, but people who have allowed me to share Jesus with them.  I love that they let me and I love that Jesus puts us in those places.  May God put you in a place to day to be Jesus to someone.  To listen and to offer hope in their lives.

Prayer: Thank you Jesus for letting me walk with youth both young and old.

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters,[a] and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing 2 Thessalonians 1:3 NIV