Borrowed Light

In Defense of Boring Student Ministry

August 31, 2018Mike Leake

“It’s a sin to bore young people with the gospel.”

I heard that phrase quite a few times in my training as a student pastor. There is much to this which I would heartily affirm. If you have the ability to say something compelling and winsomely most of the time it’s better to do such a thing than to say it in a drab and non-compelling way. Also, it’s helpful for us to show and display the joy of the Lord. One of the most helpful evangelistic tools we have is a display of our love for one another. Such a thing can be displayed by a hospital bed, but it can also be shown over a riveting game of Grog. (Which is perhaps THE absolute best game to ever play at a youth lock-in).

While I appreciate much of that statement, there is also a way in which it might be the source of where we’ve went off the rails in some student ministry. And it might be one of the reasons why we’ve had some gaps in our transitioning kids from student ministry to “big church”.

Here is my point. While the gospel is never boring, living out the Christian life most certainly is incredibly boring. I don’t mean that every aspect of walking with Jesus is dull and unexciting. But I do mean that a faithful walk with Christ is actually quite monotonous, repetitive, uneventful, and even tedious—all of which are synonyms of boring. Again, I’m not saying I’m bored with Jesus. The gospel is enough to stir up deep awe and excitement within my soul. And, yes, at times my drabness in discipline is a result of personal sin. But the Christian life isn’t a constant mountain top. And that’s my point.

There is a way in which we’ve centered student ministry (and even every component of church from birth to death) around this principle of making sure that people are really excited and they have these dynamic experiences when they are in our building. When we teach we want every moment to be light bulbs. We want kids to go home floating on cloud nine and all jazzed up about our worship songs, our sermons, or the talk we had after youth group. And at times this happens. But for the most part discipleship is made of the boring stuff.

In Perspectives on Family Ministry, Jay Strother makes a phenomenal point about the role events plays in our student ministries. They have a place. But Strother makes an excellent point which relates to what I’m saying here about boredom and everyday Christianity:

In some cases events serve as catalysts to introduce new students to a ministry or to call current students to renew their commitments. The role of events should, however, be limited and carefully coordinated within the entire scope of ministry. Otherwise students become spiritually codependent on emotional moments that occur apart from the day-by-day disciplines of life. In the process students fail to develop a truly biblical framework that calls for a lifestyle of worship (Romans 12:1-2). Instead, they become ‘worship junkies’ looking for that next ‘camp spiritual high’. Yet the experiences having the greatest lifelong impressions on children and students are not high-intensity events. According to findings cited by Richard Ross, the deepest impressions on students lives occur in far more mundane contexts, such as serving alongside parents in ministry or mission settings. (Perpsectives, 131-132)

I’m not trying to say we should intentionally bore kids. We should speak with as much ethos and pathos as our given text allows. We should love fiercely. And we should have plenty of fun and enjoy the life that God has given us. But we also shouldn’t train our kids to think following Jesus, at least this side of glory, is going to be anything other than a mundane experience which is mixed with a few mind-blowing and exciting things along the way. So it’s helpful for us to train kids in this way.

Besides, in our entertainment-saturated world kids aren’t as hungry for fun as they are legit love. I know it goes against everything you’ve been taught but good ol’ consistent, mundane, boring ol’ love is going to go a million times further than a fire truck baptistry. (At least if you measure with eternal scales).

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Photo source: here

Read This! 08.30.18

August 30, 2018Mike Leake

12 Biggest Ministry Frustrations For Student Pastors

As a former student pastor, I think these are legit.

The 4 Biggest Blind Spots of Churches

This is helpful to think through.

Poor Interpretation Lets Us “Believe” the Bible While Denying What It Actually Says

Oh wow, such a great point.

Pastoring Amid Depression

Unfortunately, I can relate to this.

What I’ve Learned About Leviticus After Studying it for Over a Decade

Why in the world would you study Leviticus for that long? After reading this article it doesn’t seem like such a crazy idea.

Why I Don’t Prefer the Phrase “Criteria of Canonicity”

Just had a conversation about this with our associate pastor.

12 Ways Your Church Can Serve Local Schools

Great ideas.

She Never Came Home

A story of when forgiveness seems impossible.

What is the most unlikely thing to happen to you? I guarantee it isn’t what you’d think:

Proposing A New Awareness Month

August 29, 2018Mike Leake

Do y’all ever wonder if maybe we are raising awareness for the wrong stuff? I’m a bit hesitant to even ask this question because I appreciate raising awareness for particular struggles. And let’s be honest, who of us would know anything about cholangiocarcinoma if it weren’t for February’s awareness month? There really is benefit to raising awareness for certain things. But something is missing…

Peruse this list of month long observances.

How many of those things are positive? Not many.

So here is what I’m wondering. Would it not be more beneficial for our health and society to make ourselves aware of all the amazing and wonderful things that God is doing in our world? Wouldn’t it be great to have an I Just Grilled An Awesome Steak month? I’m not calling for a neglect of raising awareness for many of these legit issues. We cannot just live in our world with rose colored glasses. But I’m not just making this stuff up, the Bible actually speaks to this.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8)

This is where we should place our focus. These are things which we should be constantly and consistently recognizing. It’s true that I wrestle with depression and anxiety. It’s true that some things have happened to me in my past which get their own month. It’s true that really bad junk is going on in our world and real people really suffer. But at the exact same time there is another story—a better story—that is taking place. I’d rather tell the better story. I’d rather do as Paul has said here. (This is the same Paul who could have had his Thorn Awareness Month or Abused Apostle Awareness Week).

There is wisdom in what God is calling us to do here in this text. While some (a few) things are helped by raising awareness and focus upon themselves most things are actually made worse when given all our attention. They cannot bear the weight of our identities. They aren’t big enough to move us to worship. They aren’t worthy to be claimed as reasons we were created.

I read the devastating news of another pastor who committed suicide the other day. This happening once is too many. But the frequency with which I’m hearing of these things is staggering. And I’ve been thinking for awhile now about depression/suicide and how it relates to pastoral ministry. I want to do something about this. I want to raise awareness. And I think it’d be helpful. I think at least in some ways it is helpful for folks to understand a bit about the weight and burden of pastoral ministry. It’s helpful for people to know that some folks talk to pastors like they would never talk to another human being. There are dehumanizing things which have sadly become part and parcel of the ministry of many folks. And so awareness is helpful.

But sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes it turns us inward. Sometimes it causes us to identify with a thing instead of a Person. Sometimes it turns our gaze away from Christ—who is able to bear every bit of our identities—and onto something else. Some of the things we see on these month long lists is, to me, a bit like raising awareness of Satan’s activity in our world. That’s fine to know where and how the enemy is attacking us. But we’re going to be crippled if we turn many of these into celebrations or if we don’t at the exact same time have an overwhelming amount of focus, attention, and awareness of the beautiful story our great God is telling.

Robert Murray McCheyne, a Scottish preacher, once said, “for every look to self take ten looks to Christ”. Maybe for our day we should say “for ever awareness month of self have ten awareness months of Christ”.

He’s bigger. He’s greater. And he’s doing something far more awesome. Let’s put our awareness there.

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Photo source: here