Biblical Manhood

Because it's just not acceptable that I've only posted once in the month of May! So here are 3 sermons that I am currently making why through on Biblical Manhood by Paul Washer.  I'm half way through the series and am finding it thrilling.

Watch, think deeply about what he says, pray through it, and obey God.

Biblical Manhood - Part 1


Biblical Manhood - Part 2


Biblical Manhood - Part 3

Youth Ministry Priorities

I was asked a question recently about my "success in youth ministry".  It's a devious question, though the questioner was entirely innocent!  It was devious for 2 reasons.  The one personal, the other based on a history of bad youth ministry practice (and they overlap).
1)  I am NOT successful in youth ministry.  Not by outward appearances perhaps.  I wish I had large numbers of kids worshipping Jesus, and striving to live holy and godly lives for him.  Instead, I have a handful (and I'm reminded not to despise the day of small things Zecharaiah 4:10).
2)  Bad youth ministry practice focuses on numbers, saying success is about the size or quantity of your group, and not the quality.

So in response (though possibly a bit defensive because in my sin I crave large numbers!) I went into a rhetoric of how I "got over" large numbers in youth ministry a long time ago and that success isn't measured by numbers.

That however is perhaps a little misleading, if only for the fact that it focuses on the negative (after all large numbers aren't bad), but instead should rather lead on the positive in saying that success should be measured by the quality of the young people produced.  And this my friends, isn't measured over 6 months, or a year, or possibly even 2 years, but over the long haul.  Where will your young people be in 5, 10 or 15 years time?  Will they still be in the church (or a church?).  Will they still be loving the Lord Jesus.  Will they be servants of the most high king, in their homes, schools, universities, work places and the world?

The sad reality is that in many churches where the focus was on numbers, the salvation was "weak".  The seed was planted in shallow, weedy or stony soil.  Quick commitments were made, but they weren't long lasting.  Many teens I worshipped with on Fridays and Sundays no longer worship the Lord.  Many people I know of in my current position were once vibrant teenagers who one might say were "on fire" or "sold out" for Jesus - but sadly 5 years on they are leaving the church.

The answer?  Invest in your young people; grow them carefully.  See them to maturity as oak-trees, not bean-sprouts.  Just ask yourself this simple question, constantly in your years in ministry:  Do you want to look back at your kids when they are adults and see the majority not worshipping Jesus?  Or do you want to see those whom you invested in serving the Lord?  Invest, mentor, train, befriend, love, serve, and above all teach them the Bible, "warts and all!" as Paul tells his young padawan Timothy: "so they may be equipped for every good work."

How do you prepare your Bible Lesson? (part 2)

In my last post I wrote about 2 ways you may want to prepare for teaching a Bible lesson.  ORE and COMA.  You can read it here.  That was a very general get into the text way of preparing (or not preparing).  In this post, I'd like to share how I teach my Sunday School teachers to prepare their lessons (in conjunction with the material they use).  This is not my originality, but something I've taken from the resources we use: TNT.  You can find out more about them here:  Mustard-Seeds.net

How do I prepare a Bible Lesson?

To prepare a Sunday School lesson properly takes at least one evening (2-3 hours).  It is helpful to read the Bible passage several days before teaching it to allow time to mull over what it is saying.

When preparing a lesson the following steps should be taken:

1)                  Pray

In a busy world this is very easy to forget.  We are unable to understand God’s word without his help and we need to remind ourselves of that fact before we start.

2)                  Read the Bible Passage

This should be done before reading the lesson manual.  Our resource is the Bible, not what someone says about it.  The Bible study notes in the lesson manual are a commentary on the passage to help you understand it.

3)                  Look at the Lesson Aim

This should reflect the main teaching of the passage.  Plan how that can be packaged appropriately for the group you teach.

4)                  Storytelling

Decide how to tell the Bible story.  Is it applicable to recapitulate on what has happened in previous weeks?  Will you involve the children in the presentation of the story?  What sorts of questions are appropriate to use?  How will you ascertain what has been understood?  Is there anything in the story that should be applied to their lives?        

5)                  Visual Aids

What type of visual aid will help bring the story alive for the children?  Simple pictures may be appropriate.  For stories with a lot of movement it may be better to use models or a flannel graph (we don’t have one, though if there were enough interest from teachers I’d be happy to get one).  Do remember that visual aids take time to make and this will need to be built into your lesson preparation.

6)                  Craft Activities

Many of the craft activities require prior preparation by the teacher.

How do you prepare your Bible Lesson? (part 1)

Firstly, I hope you open up the Bible!  That is usually a good place to begin.

Secondly, here are two acronyms you may want to try.  One is seriously better than the other.  I'll let you decide which one you think that might be (it's pretty obvious).

The first one you could try is:  ORE

Opinion:  about a certain topic or passage
Rant:  about said topic or passage
Error:  talk about all the errors that other people make about the topic or passage

The second one you could try is this:  COMA

Context:  what is the context surrounding the passage you are teaching on
Observation:  what are some/all the observations you can make about the passage?
Meaning:  what is the actual meaning of the passage?
Application:  how can the meaning of the passage be applied to your hearers?

Okay I'm a terrible poker player, so let me just show you my hand and get it over with:  Please choose the second one!  But don't actually put your hearers in a coma...

Your Bible is not reliable, it's just a broken telephone game put into words...

Here's an excerpt from a guy who's pretty smart and does smart stuff with old bible texts:

Isn’t the process of copying a copy of a copy somewhat akin to the old “telephone game”?

Hardly. In the telephone game the goal is to garble an original utterance so that by the end of the line it doesn’t resemble the original at all. There’s only one line of transmission, it is oral rather than written, and the oral critic (the person who is trying to figure out what the original utterance was) only has the last person in line to interrogate.

When it comes to the text of the NT, there are multiple lines of transmission, and the original documents were almost surely copied several times (which would best explain why they wore out by the end of the second century).

Further, the textual critic doesn’t rely on just the last person in the transmissional line, but can interrogate many scribes over the centuries, way back to the second century.

And even when the early manuscript testimony is sparse, we have the early church fathers’ testimony as to what the original text said.

Finally, the process is not intended to be a parlor game but is intended to duplicate the original text faithfully—and this process doesn’t rely on people hearing a whole utterance whispered only once, but seeing the text and copying it.

The telephone game is a far cry from the process of copying manuscripts of the NT.

For the rest of the interview, go here to Justin Taylor's blog

A Review: Mustard Seeds - bible teaching resources for Children

I don't often do reviews, and the few times I have they have been pretty negative - i.e. I've wanted to respond to stuff I disagree with.  This is not one of those reviews.  I really like Mustard Seeds, and hopefully if you're involved in children's work you will consider using it.

Some background then, what is Mustard Seeds?  Well, they're those little tiny seeds that when you plant grow mustard tree's/shrubs/bush things...  it's also a new arm of TnT (Teaching and Training) Ministries.  Whilst I was in Bible College - we had the then directors come in and train us in teaching the Bible to children, and also used their own TnT resources to do it.  I fell in love with it then, and so it made sense then for me to use that material in my own church's work with children.  TnT however has been around for an extremely long time, and so it is fare and honest for me to say that a lot of their stuff was outdated - not the Bible teaching (that's timeless!), but the crafts, the games, and sometimes just weird things like having your kids guess a word from a picture, but the one word is split over two lines for no reason - if my adult leader can't get it, how do I expect my 6 year old's too?  That said, I am far more interested in the Bible being taught well and correctly than in slick presentation, and that for me is where TnT excels, especially as one of it's aims is to not only get children into the Bible, but your teachers too.  TnT actively encourages teachers to spend a good proportion of their preparation time studying the scripture themselves, rather than just reading a lesson. This is what sets TnT a part from other Sunday school resources (I believe), and a good thing too!

Mustard Seeds, although a new arm of TnT, is essentially the same good and trusted Bible-focused resource.   It's not entirely the same as lots has been updated.  Easier crafts (nothing worse than spending 3 hours prepping craft work!), some new game ideas, but it seems to me there is also a bit more "commentary" and study help for teachers. Most notably, it is now available to purchase online.  This really is great!  It makes it easier for sharing with teachers, easier to print, and it's cheaper!

Let me use their words about what they offering:

Mustard Seeds is a new series of downloadable resources from TnT Ministries.
Aim - to produce a range of quality, cost-effective resources to enable ordinary people to teach the Bible to children faithfully, creatively and effectively.

Features and Benefits

• Faithful - engages the teacher with the Bible as God’s living and active Word, thus encouraging them to grow spiritually before they attempt to teach it to children.
• Creative - every lesson includes Bible study notes, ideas for lively introductions, a teaching plan, active games that reinforce the lesson, creative prayer ideas, craft activities and group discussion starters.
• Comprehensive - four year curriculum for 3’s to 11’s. Can be used as an all-age Sunday School or for more age-specific small groups.
• Modular - download only what you need.
• SEN Support - where possible, we aim to provide ideas and suggestions to help teach each lesson to children with Special Educational Needs.Economical - teach your entire 3-11's Sunday School for under a £1 per week!
• Eco-Friendly - print only what you need using your personal printer. No need for a photocopier.

A couple of other things that Mustard Seeds are producing are training resources to help train you and your leaders in children's work.  An article here on child development Children are Caterpillars is their first, but more are certainly in the pipeline.
They are also planning to produce one-off events to help in your evangelistic efforts with kids in and outside your church.  So for example we used their interactive nativity - the Bethlehem Experience - at Christmas time instead of a boring play!  Our families loved it!  We're hoping to do one for Easter too, though I don't think they've produced one yet for it - maybe next year.  Hey, God gave me a brain too - maybe I should use it.

So, if you're involved in Children's work do have a look around the Mustard-Seeds.net website.  Even if you don't feel like you can change your curriculum at the moment, they've got a couple of free resources which are useful.  But also remember they are cheap, biblically faithful and very user friendly!  I'm a fan, and will be using it and encouraging others to use it for many years to come!

February 2012

Ryan’s ABC at BFC

A simple reflection on my first year at Brentford Free Church – and a Semese Street style ABC seems the right way to go!

Affirmed that at the moment BFC is the right place for me to be. 

Brentford really is a community full of young people and families, and most importantly people who need the Lord Jesus.

Claire makes working in the office a joy.  Whether it’s letting me listen to my music or random podcasts on theology, or making me a cup of well needed coffee – she (and Brian) have become good friends.

David is a great friend and pastor who constantly seeks to guide and uplift me in the task of leading children and young people.  He’s also likes to tell me to tidy up a lot!

Equipping me for future ministry, BFC is a great training ground and I am privileged to work alongside some great people who love people, and love Jesus.

Friendships are slowly being built, sometimes too slowly, but such is the business of life.  My prayer and hope this year is that I get to know more of you and to enjoy the simple pleasures of company and friendship with you.

Grace.  I’m here because God is good, despite my weaknesses and sin.  Thank-you for bearing with me through this year – perhaps you have felt some of my changes unnecessary, or that my ability to remember important tasks is lacking, or that my hair is just too darn long.  And for goodness sake what is that piercing!?!?? 

Humour.  Thank-you that I can laugh with many of you, especially about my long hair and piercings!

Infinitely grateful to the hospitality that I have received from many of you – and long may it continue. 

Jesus is the focus of my work; pray that I never lose sight of this.  As I often reflect with our teens, no matter what we are taught and believe – always come back to Jesus, the author and completer of our faith.  Jesus is for me, for you, for your children.  Know him, trust him, love him.

Kids are a large percentage of my work, whether I’m thinking through how to teach the Bible better to them, discipline them (wooden spoons or canes?), it is a great joy and huge responsibility to be leading them through the Bible.  Pray for them and pray for me.

Learning on the job constantly.  No amount of theological training can prepare you for really getting your teeth sunk into the pleasures and problems of ministry.

Mini-Heroes and BYG are our two Wednesday youth groups.  Pray that the many non-Churched kids who come to these activities will hear the truth of the Gospel and that we would have the pleasure of leading them to Christ!

Nativity. This was a highlight of the Christmas period for me, seeing our students take on an important story from the Bible and bringing it alive for our children and families!  If you missed it, stay tuned for Easter.

Oldies.  Contrary to the popular belief that youth workers and elderly don’t get along – I LOVE our elderly folk.  Often as cheeky as the children we work with (are they really that different?), the oldies at BFC (I refuse to say at what age this starts) are a real joy and delight to me, and BFC does a fantastic job of serving them.  If you want a true taste of the elderly in action and have a day off, come to a Wednesday mid-week service and just be thrilled to bits!

Pressure from others, pressure from yourself – there are always pressures in ministry.  Pray particularly for a renewed strength and courage to continue the Lords work, even when there is pressure (spiritual or physical) that dictates otherwise.

Quiet from pressure is a must.  Thank-you for letting me go away on a conference to help rest, recharge my batteries, as well as continue to train amongst friends and mentors in teaching the Bible.

Ryan. That’s me. If you didn’t know, I’m South African, have an interest in Rugby and Waterpolo (though have played neither in many, many years) and when I started at BFC had a huge disinterest in football!  Now I help coach football for our outreach project on Sunday afternoons, and have recently joined the Church’s football club on Mondays.  Why not join us?  Speak to Tim Lofty though, he’s certainly the man with the plan!

Students are growing at BFC.  Pray for them that God would continue to grow them to be the men and women who will lead their churches in the future (if not now?), and pray (and ensure) that BFC would be a great home for them whilst here.

Teenagers.  I love our teenagers.  Such a pleasure to be with each Sunday.  Best of all, they love Jesus, and want to see their friends know Jesus too.  It was great to see some of them baptised at the beginning of the year, and to see how they have been growing in their faith.  P.S. You guys Rock! 

Untidy.  Yes, the rumour is true.  I am messy, slobby, untidy.  An all round can’t-keep-my-desk-tidy-even-if-I-wanted-too kind of guy!  I’m sorry, I really am!  Please forgive me.  I am working on it though!  P.S.  No one go into the youth cupboard… we have an urgent date.

Vainglory.  If for whatever reason I have done right by you and served you well, it is not because I am anything great, but because Jesus is Lord.  If I have yet to do (or never do) anything great by you… Jesus is still Lord and I remain a lowly servant, weak and frail, yet content to continue his will.

Wrestling with children on the platform, or wrestling with God in prayer, or wrestling with the convictions and opinions of others – the ministry is one of wrestling.  May my times with God leave me a changed man, broken and humbled as Jacob was.

Xtra. A great privilege to be involved in the life of the church as just a member, separate from paid duties.  If you’re not serving in the church or a member – do it!  Is it necessary as a Christian?  No.  Is it a great way to be a Christian?  Yes.  You will be served, humbled, and understand the wider calling God has for you amongst fellowship and commitment to other believers.

Yesterday, Tomorrow and Forever – is the truth of Jesus’ love and care for us, for he will never change.  Therefore no matter what sin we have committed in our past, no matter what sin we will commit today or in the day’s to come (to our final breath), Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and continuously call us back to his throne.  If you don’t worship Jesus yet – do it!

Zealous for the work and life of the church and for God’s glory and truth to be proclaimed to all and sundry.

All in all, thank you for appointing me as your children’s and youth worker, thank-you for putting up with me, thank you for loving Jesus, thank you for loving his Word (the Bible) and thank you for your friendships.

Continue to pray for me in all that I do, that I would be better equipped physically and emotionally to handle the immense privilege and calling it is to serve you here.

Sol Deo Gloria (Glory to God Alone)

Ryan Rudolph

Children and Families Team Leader.