VELCRO: Concepts That Make Leaders Stick

Mark Twain once said that when he was a child, he couldn't believe how little his parents knew.  Yet, when he became a man, he was amazed at how much they'd learned.  The older I get in youth ministry, the more I realize I have a lot more to learn.

I've found  in youth ministry  it's extrememly difficult to relate to the students without being relevant to them.  I had a student one time send me a message on Facebook.  He was letting me know that he appreciated the fact that his "peeps think you're legit."  If you just had to ask someone else what that sentence meant, guess what - you've got a lot more to learn, too!

Point of Origin

Just about any time I go somewhere on a long trip, I use my GPS.  I plug in my destination, and because the GPS is on my Android phone, it tells me how to get where I'm going.  This is a very helpful tool to a guy who once got lost twice in the same night trying to pick up his date for homecoming as a Junior in high school!  (To her credit, my date actually endured the entire evening - which included getting lost on the way to dinner, too.)


But a more important question, I believe, is not "Where am I going?" but rather "Where am I coming from?"  Check out what Gamaliel, a Pharisee, said in Acts 5:

Holding On to the Promise

Have you ever been promised something by someone that just didn't seem to make much sense?  You know what I'm talking about - they told you what they were promising, and when you looked at the circumstances surrounding the promise, you just saw no way possible that it could, should or would happen.  So consequently, you didn't put much time into belief that it would happen.


The Bible is replete with examples of promises that God has made to people that defied logic and circumstance.  

A Life Well Spent

The Times Square Church Facade,
where Rev. Wilkerson was the founding
Pastor; (inset) "The Cross and The
Switchblade" was probably the book
for which Rev. Wilkerson was most
widely known.

I woke up this morning to read that David Wilkerson has died.  I will be far from the only person to comment or blog on this in the next 24-36 hours.  But it struck me, not because I knew him or was connected with him in any way, but because of how he spent his life.


The front page of Wilkerson's World Challenge Ministries, Inc. website says that his we (his family) "rejoice at the joy of knowing that David Wilkerson spent his life well."  That certainly seems like an understatement to me.   God used Rev. Wilkerson to found Teen Challenge and Times Square Church - two ministries that have reached, and continue to reach, literally hundreds of thousands of people for the sake of the Kingdom.  On the Times Square Church website, Pastor Carter Conlon said that, Pastor David Wilkerson’s was a life fully given for the glory of God and souls of men."


There has only been one other time, that I can remember at the moment, in my life where I was caused to take pause for a moment and evaluate my life and what I want to be my legacy - and that was when Rich Mullins died suddenly about 12 or so years ago.


As we remember in the coming days the legacy of Rev. Wilkerson, I encourage you to do as I will do - evaluate even for a moment what we want to be said of us.  Am I a life "fully given" to God and for His kingdom's sake?  Will my life be a life well spent?

VELCRO: Concepts That Make Leaders Stick

I periodically run a segment in Youth Staff e-Mails I call "Velcro".  The whole purpose is to share some leadership concepts that I'm working on, learning, have learned or have even just been introduced to, with the leaders around me.  I've shared on the blog once before in this vein, and I thought that I'd share again something that I'm learning and honing in my leadership.  I call it "Leading From the On-deck Circle".


As I was reading in one of the blogs that I follow, I was reminded of something that's so important for all of us to understand: in order to be a great leader, we first have to be great followers!

Overcoming Temptation

I'm becoming a regular reader of other blogs.  I've always tried to keep up with certain people's blogs - I've long had a few RSS feeds in my Google Reader and phone app.  But, until the last few weeks, I've not been very faithful with regularly checking in.  So, on that note, I was catching up on Jeff Leake's blog yesterday.  He posted some of Rick Warren's comments on temptation.  It struck me as encouraging and motivating, so I thought I'd share them today.  You can read Jeff's entire post from Monday here.

The Great Exchange

As I was reading in Acts and Romans today, I suffered from what happens to me occasionally - lack of inspiration.  I don't read through devotions looking for sermon or blog material.  I read through it for me, and despite that, I'm still uninspired at times.  Certainly, that's not anyone's fault but my own.



So I re-read through Acts 2, and was suddenly struck by something Peter said at the end of what is probably the greatest sermon ever preached.  "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah."  A few things struck me here: