Ken Moser 2012 Session 3

I've just written a paper that is going to go on the Youth Surge website.

I hope that you know that there's a Youth Surge website.

It's called youthsurge.com.au.

I have a website in America called effectiveyouthministry.com.

It's not effectiveym.com.

Be careful.

They're the speed water into a bucket guys and smack each other with all the newspaper.

Effectiveyouthministry.com, where I every week just post youth ministry thoughts.

They're designed for the leadership team to download, read, and discuss.

And there's going to be a long paper.

I'm giving it in Melbourne at this conference on, you know,

do we think pragmatically in youth ministry or do we think theologically?

And so you've got to really think through that because the Americans are pragmatists.

The Americans say, how do we get kids in the door?

That's what they think.

That's not a theological way to think.

It's not an Australian way to think.

We want to think, what does God want us to do?

That's way more important.

So let's think theologically.

Let's think with our Bibles open.

Now, if this was a 40-hour class, we'd spend a whole bunch of time in the Bible.

And so, unfortunately, I've got to rush through some really good God stuff,

which is frustrating for all of us.

But here is a key passage.

To me, this is a central passage in thinking through youth ministry.

It's well known.

1 Corinthians 3.

And God says here, Paul says here,

By the grace God gives me,

I laid a foundation as an expert building in somebody else's building.

Paul goes to Corinth.

He does evangelism.

People become Christians and he leaves.

So he was the expert builder.

And he built this church.

And he says,

But each one should be careful how he builds.

For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

So it's all about Jesus.

That's why we're doing it.

You're preaching Jesus, teaching Jesus,

helping people to love Jesus,

helping people to love each other because of Jesus.

The whole thing is about Jesus.

If any man builds on this foundation,

he's in gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, and straw.

His work will be shown for what it is

because the day will bring it to light.

You're building a house.

Paul says you've got two piles.

Gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, and straw.

Now be clear on this.

In that culture,

you are not going to build a house with gold, silver, costly stones.

It's absurd.

You're going to build a house with wood, hay, or straw.

Like today.

And so Paul says be careful

because there's some really obvious stuff to build with

and it's the wrong stuff.

There's other stuff to build

that you may not even occur to you to build with.

But that's what you're going to build with

because you're actually building a temple.

And you don't build a temple with just straw.

You build a temple with gold.

And so he says,

if anything builds on this foundation with these things,

his work will be shown.

The day will bring it to light.

That's the day of judgment.

It will be revealed with fire.

And the fire will test the quality of each man's work.

So God is going to send the judgment fires on our youth ministries.

So I was with these two awesome ladies for six years at Oakhurst.

Just a tremendous blessing in my life.

I learned so much about youth ministry at Oakhurst.

It was the most fruitful time in my life

for thinking and writing and strategizing

for all sorts of great reasons.

And I'm obviously a lot older than them.

And I'm going to die.

I'm going to go to heaven.

And I think what this passage is saying

is that in some weird way,

God is going to bring my youth group to heaven.

And in my judgment,

I'm going to be surrounded by these youth group kids.

Lonnie's going to be there.

Siara's going to be there.

I don't know how it's going to work.

It's kind of weird.

But suddenly God is going to test them.

And if they stand, I stand.

If they are burned up, I suffer loss.

Verse 15.

He's going to test the quality of each man's work.

If what he's built survives, he receives reward.

If it's burned up, he will suffer loss.

He himself will be saved,

but only as one escaping through the flames.

I'm going to go to heaven no matter what

because I trust in Jesus.

Jesus has taken my sins.

But if I've run this youth group called, you know,

Spew Squad,

and we've just covered ourselves with marshmallows

every week,

and we've done weird things with toothpicks.

By the way, if it involves a toothpick,

you don't do it in youth ministry.

It's a rule.

Eggs, shaving cream, toothpicks at all costs.

We try to toothpick thing in youth group.

Even though we've been in youth ministry 30 years,

just a few months ago, it was dreadful.

And that was the same night we tried memory verse tennis,

where you had to hit and say the memory verse.

We thought it was such a good idea.

You know when it's death from the minute the activity starts?

And we're like, oh, this is awful.

So even in 30 years, we still get it wrong.

Anyway, I'll still be saved,

but only there's one escaping.

Now this passage, man,

it revolves on those nine words.

Two, four, six, eight, nine.

Be careful.

Be careful.

When you buy a youth ministry book,

be careful.

When you read my stuff,

be careful.

When you put a program together,

be careful.

Because you are building on Jesus,

you're building God's temple.

Are you using gold?

So here's one simple barometer for your youth group.

Something I've learned in a long time.

Does your youth group pray?

If your youth group prays,

that's a really good barometer for your youth ministry.

If I come to your youth group,

and you open with prayer,

and there's a prayer time involved,

and when the leader says,

hey guys, we're going to pray,

what can we pray for?

And kids say,

could we pray for whatever?

That is a real sign of health.

And that says to me

that there's a real serious building with gold here.

When you say to your youth group,

okay, grab your Bibles.

So I was at the youth group here last night,

and one of the leaders who's here said,

okay, everybody get a Bible.

What did the kids do?

They all went and got a Bible.

Okay, we're going to turn to Mark 14.

They open up to Mark 14.

That is a real sign of gold

being woven and built,

and this program is just,

oh, I think, fantastic.

That's a healthy barometer.

When do the kids groan?

Oh, that's a real indicator

that something's,

okay, we're going to play a game now

if they go, oh,

they're saying something.

Or if you say, hey,

we're going to have a prayer time now

and if the kids go, oh,

we want to keep playing the game,

that's a real sign.

So Paul says, build with gold.

Build with gold.

Now here's another one.

This to me is just a fantastic passage.

You know it.

It's a real famous passage.

It's at the end of Acts 2.

Luke, the historian,

gives us kind of a summary passage.

He does it a few times

in the book of Acts.

And he says,

just to sum up this wacko,

amazing, fantastic time

in the early church

where there was Pentecost

and all this outpouring

of the Holy Spirit

and thousands of people

became Christians

and it was just amazing.

He sums it up by saying,

this stuff.

Template.

You are looking at a template

for youth ministry.

Right there.

Notice what they were.

They were devoted

to Bible study.

They were devoted

to fellowship.

The word there is

koinonia or koinonia.

We have cheapened

the word fellowship

in youth ministry.

We have,

what people do culturally

is they take a really good word

and they hijack it.

The word gay,

it's a really good word.

Like it's rich in meaning

but you can't say it anymore.

It's been twisted.

And we've done

a similar thing

with fellowship.

We call things fellowship

that aren't fellowship.

Fellowship is relating

to a person

because of the cross of Christ.

So I am deep friends

with Ciara

not because we just connect

and we like the same stuff

and we just personality-wise

get along.

That's true.

But it's because

of the cross of Christ.

I relate to her

through Jesus

which means

much more deep.

I'm going to care for her.

I'm going to love her.

I'm going to be with her,

mourn when she's mourning,

rejoice when she's rejoicing.

I'm going to admonish her.

I'm going to rebuke her.

I'm going to warn her.

I'm going to study the Bible with her.

It's this awesome term.

That's fellowship.

That's what they were devoted to.

They were devoted to

possibly communion,

possibly meals.

People disagree.

And they were devoted to prayer.

Wow, what a great

youth group image right there.

Everybody looks in and says,

woo, amazing.

And the apostles were doing

great stuff.

People getting healed.

They spent a lot of time together.

Notice that in verse 44.

They had a lot of commonality together.

People kind of wrestle with that.

What does it mean?

Does it mean physical stuff?

Does it mean attitudinally?

Does it mean doctrinally?

I think it means they were thinking

of one mind and spirit.

And they, verse 45,

they shared their stuff.

Generosity.

They met a lot.

Verse 46.

Big group, small group.

Big group in the temple courts,

small group eating together in the homes.

They spent a lot of time praising God.

People looked in and said,

you guys are awesome right here.

And they grew.

Amazing passage.

Amazing passage.

And so I look at that and I say,

okay, that informs my thinking

in what I want to do.

That is a list of activities.

It's not a list of doctrines.

I must believe that Jesus is X.

That's really good.

I love doctrine.

I'm a doctrine guy.

But this is a list of activities.

So I read that and I think,

okay, if I do that,

I'm building with gold.

And I want to think theologically.

And I want to take those activities

and put them into place in my youth group.

And so how do I do that?

That's the question.

That's where we're going right now.

So I'm going to build my youth program

on three pillars.

So those of you who need a model of youth ministry,

here it comes.

For those of you who know my stuff,

this is a little bit,

I'm taking build, reach, and flow.

If you don't know what I'm talking about,

don't worry about it.

I'm taking build, reach, and flow

and I'm trying to work it a little bit,

make it a little bit thicker.

So build, reach, and flow fits into this.

We're not going to talk much about build, reach, and flow today.

You can read about it.

But I want to build my house on three pillars.

And this is real obvious stuff,

but I'm telling you,

the more I think about it,

I think it changes everything.

I think it changes everything.

Our pillar number one is we're a Christian youth group.

When I came to Australia,

I immediately fell in love with Australia.

It changed my life.

But I didn't get Australia.

I didn't get Australia until I got cricket.

I won't bore you with the story,

but it was during beach mission season.

All my friends had gone.

I was going so insane

that I turned on Channel 9 and watched the cricket.

For an American, that's insanity.

And over the course of five days,

and a lot of phone calls,

what's a Googly, what's a Yorker,

you know,

everything opened up.

I understood so much about Australia

that just led to a whole bunch of thinking

and led to quite a deep desire

for me to become an Australian.

Now I'm trying to wrestle with hockey.

Hockey's a really weird sport.

I don't get it.

Like, you lose your teeth when you play.

It just seems like,

welcome to the hockey team,

you won't be needing those anymore.

LAUGHTER

But our college has a gym.

It's in a balcony.

I'm doing the elliptical

because I'm really not good

at anything else these days.

If it involves a heavy object, forget it.

So I just do this.

Woo!

And I watch the hockey

because every institution in Australia

has to have a hockey rink,

in Canada,

has to have a hockey rink.

So I'm watching hockey.

And then there'll be a hockey match.

And I'm watching the parents.

And I'm watching the coach.

Now I don't know if you know hockey.

I never knew this.

But the team doesn't stay out

for longer than 90 seconds.

So you have four guys race out.

And it's so fast

that they hyperventilate.

And they come back in

and four more guys goes out.

And they have four sets of four guys.

Is that right, Josh?

It's four sets.

Five sets of four guys.

Four sets of five guys.

Four sets of five guys.

Who go out.

And I never pick that up.

And so I'm watching it.

Now what I'm watching

is a brutal, sweaty, hard sport.

That's what I'm watching.

And the parents are into it.

And the kids,

they sit in this bench thing

right next to the ice.

And they just lean up.

And whenever something good happens,

they pound on the thing.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

And they're eager to go out.

And I think,

here's a group of young people

who are really committed

to something that's sweaty,

uncomfortable, toothless.

Other parts of your anatomy

will take a puck.

And so it's like,

oh, this is bizarre.

So I think, okay.

I have a nephew.

I take my nephew to hockey.

And I say,

hello, hockey coach.

My nephew's a little bit

interested in hockey.

Hockey coach says,

great.

We'd love to have him.

And I say,

yeah, but I don't think

he wants to afford hockey.

I don't know.

I think he's a bit scared.

Could you play some games

that don't have anything

to do with hockey

to kind of ease them

into hockey?

Like, could you play

Honey, If You Love Me,

Smile?

Even though I know

you guys can't smile.

What would the coach do?

What would the coach do

if I said to him,

can you do things

other than hockey

to be attractive

to the non-hockey player?

It is an unknown concept

to hockey players.

Now, I hope you're tracking

with me because

this is super important.

Think glee club.

Don't think glee club.

Think chess club.

By the way,

you know that glee clubs

sing glees?

That's why they're called

glee clubs.

I never knew that.

Anyway,

it comes from the 1700s.

If I go to a chess club,

which, by the way,

you will never see me

in a chess club.

I'm not knocking

those of you

who are in chess clubs.

I'm just...

But if I go to a chess club,

I'm not going to expect

to do a lot of things

other than play chess,

get thicker glasses

and a calculator

in my front pocket.

Just joking.

I'm going to expect

to play chess.

If a chess club

wants to grow numerically,

what are they going to do?

They're going to play chess.

It wouldn't even occur

to them to say,

let's do non-chess activities

to grow.

Wouldn't even occur to them.

Okay, let's keep going.

So what I want to think through

is we're a Christian group.

That is who we are.

We are unashamedly

marked by our love

for Jesus Christ.

There will be people

who don't want to join us.

There were people

who didn't want

to follow Jesus.

There were people

that Jesus healed

that didn't follow Jesus.

It's mind-boggling.

I can't figure that out.

Why would you not

want to follow Jesus?

Didn't want to.

Didn't want to.

And so there's going to be

a whole market share

that just quite frankly

doesn't want to be Christian,

doesn't want to follow us.

But we are going to be

a Christian youth group.

And that's going to be

what marks us.

It's going to be

really, really obvious.

That's our first pillar.

And there's a whole bunch

of Bible passages

we can look at,

but we looked at this

2 Peter one

we kind of looked at

a few minutes ago.

That's who we are.

And one really weird turn

the church did

was to follow Willow Creek

and go down

the Seeker Sensitive Mall.

That was such a weird,

for those of you

who are a bit older,

that was such a weird turn

for us to do.

We're going to start

doing non-Christian activities

to attract non-Christians.

Doesn't make any sense.

And Willow Creek,

as many of you know,

has now said,

we don't do that anymore.

And so we need to be saying,

well, we never did.

So we need to be

following along with it.

So that's our first pillar.

Hockey group,

glee club,

choir,

chess group,

Christian youth group.

And in this new

post-millennial world

where kids clearly want

integrity and transparency

and they want to know

what will I get

if I join this?

What is this all about?

Because I'm so busy

and I've got so many

good options

that I need to figure out

whether this is a valid

thing for me to give

my time and my money to.

That's our strength.

It's not our weakness.

Our strength is to say,

we are a place

that will connect you

with the creator

of the universe.

And we are a place

that just knows Jesus

intimately and loves him.

Oh, where did that come from?

Okay, now we have

a second pillar.

And our second pillar

is this.

We do Christian things.

Real obvious.

Why do we do

Christian things?

Because we're

Christian youth group.

That's why.

You come to this club,

to this group,

we are unashamedly Christian.

And we pursue

spiritual disciplines.

Now for those of you

who are kind of

like to think a bit deeper,

I'm really wrestling

with some terms.

And I think where I'm going

in the future

is pillar number one

is ontos.

It's who we are.

Pillar number two

is pneumaticos.

We are spiritual.

And that means

we do spiritual things.

And pillar three,

which we're going to get to

in a minute,

is praxis.

We think about

how we do it

in a culture.

So I'm working on

something right now

that may have that in it.

But we pray.

We send it to the Bible.

We worship.

Now we have a third pillar.

Third pillar is

we do it with youth.

Now that is

the model I think

we need to think

very carefully about.

We do this

with youth.

youth.

They are 15 years old.

They are 12 years old.

They are 20 years old.

However age they are,

what does it mean

to be a Christian group

and do Christian things

with them?

So we're going to think

about culture.

We're going to think about

how do we fit this in

to culture?

What's the best time

to do this

in culture?

What are some activities?

So now we have to

factor in cell phones.

We're going to do

an activity this afternoon

that would really easily

run with cell phones.

I hate cell phones.

I don't have a cell phone.

I never text.

I haven't texted

for years and years and years.

But I could see

building texting

into your youth program.

I can also see

making them

put their phones away

in the youth group program.

But if your culture

would be offended

if you said

okay all cell phones

go into that basket.

We'll give them back to you

at the end of the night.

I could see a culture

where the kids just say

I am not coming

if you do that.

So how do we build in

cell phones?

Well you guys are way ahead

of me because you're

a lot younger than I am.

And you think savvy.

So think through

texting questions

on the board

during a Q&A.

Think through having

a leader texting

to the kids.

Hey are you listening

to Ken?

This is a great point.

Or texting an outline

to the talk.

Or something along

those lines.

Who knows?

There's a whole bunch

of ways where you

could think through

how do we build

our culture.

Julie is going to do

an activity with us

later on where we

built Facebook in

to kind of a starting

youth group.

Julie said to me

one day just about

six weeks ago

hey I think I've got

a good kind of

mixer kind of opening

built on Facebook.

Actually Julie

do you mind saying

it right now?

We'll look at it

really briefly this

afternoon but do you

mind?

Okay yeah.

But basically

30 minutes before

youth group

I checked everyone's

Facebook profile

and wrote them all

down.

And then came to

youth group

handed out paper

and then I went

through each one

and read out

what their line was

and they couldn't

say it was them

and they had to

guess what each

other's profile was.

And they really

loved the fact that

everyone knows

their profile.

And so often

young people

they put their

profile out there

they want people

to hear it

they want people

to like it

they want people

to comment on it.

so they really

responded well

to we've got to

hear what everyone

and we even got

to interact with

you said you had

a bad week

what happened

and the school

was very positive.

Yeah.

Our youth group

where we were at

very small

we had eight or

nine kids

and so that was

just a really nice

because one thing

I'm going to say

to you later

is you want to

start the group

by saying

we're a group.

Like it's really

good to be back

together.

You know we

haven't met

for a week

and so let's

kind of catch up

and rediscover

our groupness.

And so the welcome

is very important

for that.

So a really nice

way just to start

the group

speaks right

to their culture.

Those of you

who are kind of

under 25

this is where

you live and breathe

and it's brilliant.

But this is

the third pillar

not the first pillar.

So this is not

how do we attract

kids through

gadgetry

but it's

hey we're a

Christian group

we do Christian

things but we

have to factor

in culture

for crying out loud.

You know it's

where we live.

We need to factor

in learning styles.

This is where

we in Sydney

fail miserably

because we

we have learned

one learning style

and to be honest

I'm doing it right now

where we just

speak a long time

and kids listen.

That's where

my time

at the youth group

at Oakhurst

out in Sydney's west

was super profitable.

because we had

kids who couldn't

listen for 10 seconds.

We had kids

who couldn't read

and so suddenly

I had to think

through okay

how do I take

a 25 minute message

that's

exposition

it's a Bible passage

how do I take that

and deliver it

in a way

that Brendan

can grasp.

Brendan

is a

he was a great

person

but he was

challenged

when it came

to

hearing and

listening

for 25 minutes.

So we had to

think through

very carefully

how do we do it

bang

bang

bang

very active

and so

you may need to

talk to a school

teacher

and say to a school

teacher

listen what do I do

what do I do

because school

teachers are masters

at well you want

to maybe have

three things

and you want

to have a variety

and so you do this

and then you do this

and then you do this

think ah

that is great

so think through

learning skills

active learning

have you not noticed

that most of your kids

are medicated

to the eyeballs

these days

they need

they need something

energy

or something

something

but let's build that

into our teaching

program

let's build it

into maybe

our prayer times

some of you

might be wrestling

through

you know

do we have

moving prayer

for some of you

that feels a little

uncomfortable

but one

one aspect

of youth

ministry

that's taken

quite a hold

in other parts

of the world

is thinking

through stations

where you

you repent

here

and you pray

for friends

there

and you thank

God for creation

there

and you

that's proven

to be very

very popular

with post-millennials

I can see

a number of groups

doing it here

where there's a movement

built in

Lonnie

who's over here

she really liked

liturgical dancing

she loved

that was a private

joke

sorry

we take in

adolescent development

so if you're

running a wider

youth group

of grade 6

to 12

ouch

you know

I run a youth group

from grade 6

to 12

but ouch

you know

we've got

little Elliot

who's just

full of beans

he's a terrific

kid

but he's just

he's just

and then we've got

Roy

who's in grade 12

who's really

wrestling with his future

so I've got to think

through

man how do I do this

so I've got to

really think creatively

about my program

it's hard

it's hard to do

but I want to

factor that in

because the third

pillar is super important

now what I'm going

to tell you

in a few minutes

is we're not

good at this

what we do is

we start with

some games

and we move

to the Bible

that's what we do

that is such

there's not a lot

of thought

that goes into

that program

but get rid of that

this afternoon

get rid of that

program

and rethink

so those are

those are our

three pillars

and I want you

to notice

the movement

here

the movement

is

the movement

is

our theology

impacts

our practice

so there are

things that

we're not

going to do

I'm not

I'm going to

do

I'm going to

do very few

activities

if any

that I can't

see a high

degree of

profit

from

especially

theologically

does this

help the

community of

God

connect with

each other

better

does this

help the

community of

God

connect with

God

better

does this

activity

help us

to pray

learn the

Bible

love

because

I'm

theologically

driven

but if I

just think

this activity

will quote

blow off

steam

it's gone

as I was

saying to

some youth

leaders the

other day

I have

never in

the history

of my

youth

ministry

seen a

kid blow

off steam

if somebody

says to you

well we do

this activity

just to let

them blow

off steam

grab their

tongue and

see how far

it will

actually come

out

like in

the cartoons

kids don't

blow off steam

kids get

more hyped

up

and so

that's a

concept

that I say

not really

that's not a

category I'm going to

think to

letting off steam

but connecting

learning actively

those are

concepts that I

think through

now anybody have

a question about

that

anybody have a

question or a

thought

yeah

yeah

I'd rather

not but

sometimes we

have to

yeah

yeah

yeah

yeah

partly that's

going to

that's going to

depend on the

structure of some

things going on in

your youth program

do you have

do you have

small groups

where the kids

go and join a

small group Bible

study

if I'm a big

believer in running

a small group

network we're going

to talk about that

in the next

session

so I'm not

going to do a

lot of small

group activities

in the

actual main

program

but it's not a

bad thing to do

by any stretch of

the imagination

it's a very good

thing to do

we just don't

need them because

we have cell

groups that meet

at another time

I

in some

situations

yes I would

split the

teaching

I don't

personally do

that but I

can see the

argument for it

okay

junior hires

Brad's going to

take you

you're going to

do this and

the senior hires

will stay

I tend not

to do that

I tend to

keep them

all together

and what I'm

going to try

to do is

pick my

median level

and it's hard

so generally

I aim for

kind of

year 11

year 10

and then I'm

going to think

through okay

I want to make

sure that my

talk has some

interactiveness to

it

maybe some

movement involved

and some

kind of

turn to the

person next

to you

and act

this out

or I

need a

few of

you to

come on

up and

do this

drama as

part of my

talk or

I need

here's the

white board

I want you to

really quickly

get into groups

come up with

blah blah blah

and write up on

the board

yada yada

yada

so I

what I'm

going to do

is what I

said a few

minutes ago

I'm going to

try to build

in three

movements in

my talk

now I've

got to be

honest with

you

I tend to

be lazy

and that

often goes

by the

wayside

to build

that in

is going to

take an

extra hour

of work

on your

talk

and so

for those

of you who

are volunteers

and giving

talks

that's hard

work

yeah

so if you

were finding

a medium

level

in your

group

do you

ever find

that the

kids

I know

you're

saying

put all

the

three

stages

but

do you

ever

find

that the

younger

like

the

seven

miss out

in the

12

miss out

yeah

yeah

good

very good

question

what do

you do

you know

that's

that's

that's

that's

why I'm

a big

believer

if you

can

in having

two youth

groups

junior high

senior high

I think

that's

that's

that's

the best

world

to do

it

because

then I'm

aiming

a little

bit

more for

the grade

nines

and I'm

just

I'm

just

saying

grade

sevens

you'll

get

it

and

I

think

we've

seen

often

the grade

nines

have a

bit of

a pull

for the

grade

sevens

the grade

sevens

like having

the grade

nines

there

that's

a bit

of

so they'll

often sit

through a

talk that's

boring

and I'll

aim a little

bit more

for the

grade

twelves

but yeah

and in

my youth

group right

now

this

this youth

Elliot

tremendous

kid

but quite

frankly he

can drive

some of

the grade

twelves

crazy

he gets

up all

the time

and goes

to the

fridge

there's a

fridge

in our

thing

and raids

the fridge

during youth

group

and it's

awesome

but it's

really

awkward

yeah I'm

a volunteer

so I've

got so

many other

things to

do

but I

don't

believe in

teaching

youth

ministry

not doing

youth

ministry

so

I said

to the

kids

when we

were starting

the youth

group

I said

hey guys

I'd really

like to

make this

grade

nine

to

twelve

and they

said

but what

about

Doug

and I

thought

fair enough

we'll

make it

seven

to twelve

because

I love

Doug

and I

thought

I'm

not going

to come

in and

say

your friend

can't

come

but it

created

problems

do you

have a

comment

on that

at all

mind

the Canadian

kids loved

sock puppet

memory

verses

it was

just a

winner

so

we might

talk about

later