If you are looking for a way to communicate the doctrine of holiness to your students, look no further than Jim Hampton’s Everyday Saint.

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In order to talk about holiness, we must first have some sort of grasp on what it is and what it means in our life. Here is a nice start to this discussion.

Borrowed from Jim Hampton’s excellent book “Everyday Saint” (look for a review on the blog soon!), here are some definitions of holiness that surfaced in conversation:

Holiness is…

• “to live like Christ - a life of self-sacrificing love.” - Eric, a teenager
• “being baptized by the Holy Spirit, who then lives in our hearts.” - Jazmine, a teenager
• “living together with other Christians as we seek to live out what it means to be part of the Kingdom of God on Earth.” - Rudy, a teenager
• “to be set apart for God and His work, to be cleansed of all sin, to be perfect, and to avoid sin from here on out - but the most fundamental meaning is love.” - Tom, a professor
• “the reflection of God’s own character.” - Wes, a pastor
• “loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.” - Deirdre, a pastor
• “the place where love and justice meet.” - Ruth Anne, a professor
• “giving control over every aspect of my life to God and letting Him be in charge. Some people call this ‘dying out to self’.” - Troy, a youth pastor

Do any of these resonate? Are any complete? What would you define holiness as? And what would your students define holiness as?

What does a life of service mean?

In the working world, often people are given awards for certain lengths of “service” to their employer. There are awards for one year, five years, ten years, twenty-five years, and so on. As those periods come up, banquets are held and plaques are given out to employees who have “served” their company. Now, is that really service though? I mean, they did give their time and work to the company, but in return for compensation. Does true service require compensation?

How about a life of service to the Lord?

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Did you know?

The Youth Ministry Academy has partnered with Continuing Lay Training to provide FREE ( that’s right!) training for all youth workers.  The “Youth Ministry Certificate” program includes 20 module courses created exclusively for the Academy, in addition to the required classes in theology and doctrine. These classes are designed to be self-led or facilitated through a mentoring relationship. Regardless of how you wish to go about learning the material, the cost is still FREE (I can’t say that enough!) for anyone interested. Check out these testimonies from a few who have completed the training:

“Just did the Youth Ministry Academy online course on the Youth Minister’s Relationship with God. AWESOME!!! Thanks so much to everyone that made these courses available!!” - Trena Hoy, Gardner, KS

“My study of the youth lessons is somewhat unique. I am 81, work for Goodwill Industries as a salesman and Spanish-English translator.  Many young people, assigned to do Community Service, where ever a company will use them to help pay for their court case. The way that I come in is that they are assigned to me to help direct them in their community work.  Many of of them are Hispanice and others. I feel that I am given a testimony as I treat them with respect and give them directions with a Christlike spirit. This may not sound like the normal way to testify but at my age, it is a little way to tell others of God’s love.” - Bennie Danner

“I am so excited to tell you that I have had a great success. After taking the Youth Ministry Academy program, I have been able to relate to my neighbor’s teenagers and that alone was a blessing. You see, they both have been a nuisance as far as neighbors go. After taking the course, I was able to communicate more effectively on their personal level. We are now in good standing with respect for each other. Their parents actually wave and say hello after 16 months of living next to them. I was pleased to be able to prompt my niece and nephew to attend my church. I even prompted my nephew to ask his parents if they were christian. He is questioning the fact that they only attend 2 services per year and never openly pray. Not even at meals. I would recommend this course to anyone wanting to expand or strengthen a relationship with the youth, in the church or outside of it. The course can only do you good!” - Tony Law

Go ahead and head to The Discipleship Place, facilitated through Continuing Lay Training, sign up with a username and password, and you’re good to start your Youth Academy Training today!

Let us know what you think! Email us at youthministryacademy@nazarene.org!

Having a Servant Heart

When you think about service, do you imagine an activity that involves a higher class stooping to meet the needs of the lowest social status? If your answer is yes, you have a wrong concept of what service is.

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Family Ministry

by Rev. Monte Cyr

We would all agree that our families are important. Even in today’s world where young people see and hear so much from so many who are trying to influence what they wear, what they do, what they listen to, and what they believe, studies have repeatedly shown that the number one influence in the lives of youth people is their family. God’s intention is that it is to be primarily under the influence of the family that young people’s values are formed, faith is nurtured, priorities are set, unconditional love is received and given, identities are “tried out” and life is practiced, personalities are molded, and life models are watched and imitated. The family is to be the place and the people who help the young ones grow and mature into Christ-like disciples, ready to take their place of leadership in the church and the world.

Of course, as you’ve been reading this and agreeing with what the family is supposed to do, your mind has been filling with the images of the many young people whose families are not what they need to grow up healthy and happy and ready for life. You think of the young person whose father skipped out long ago, and his mother goes from one live-in boyfriend to another. You think of the young lady who has been so emotionally, and maybe even sexually, abused by her parents that she is willing to do about anything just to feel loved and accepted. You think about the young man who ditches classes and spends his time drinking and taking drugs, trying to drown out the feelings of rejection he gets at home. You see face after face of young people who want nothing to do with the church because their experiences in their families are of either loveless legalism or hypocrisy. You think of the many young people who only hear the name of Jesus from their parents as a curse word. This obviously isn’t what God’s plan for the family, and the family’s influence, is supposed to be.

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We introduce a new feature on the blog today. Flavio Barbosa of Brazil offers a more global perspective on our topic of prayer:

The power when youth prays

By Flavio Barbosa

Talking about prayer has become a great challenge nowadays. It seems the youth of today, for the most part, do not pray! Unfortunately this is the reality of the youth in our country and the world. In some research I have done, I saw that the youth of today spends an insignificant time praying, doing so only at meals, in meetings, and when invited.

The reality is that prayer should be practiced, not only by our youth. Pray without ceasing is an order of the Lord (I Thessalonians 5:17). To put it simply, “The more prayer, the more power; less prayer, less power,” said a servant of the Lord who has since gone on to glory.

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Justice, Mercy, and the Curriculum of Youth Ministry

“And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

Who among us would knowingly oppose those words? Not one, I imagine … and yet, what do our youth ministry calendars and programs tell us? What do we really believe that the Lord requires of us?

• Fund-raisers and summer camps?

• Bible quizzing and Sunday School?

• Lock-ins and scavenger hunts?

• Worship teams and altar calls?

As far as I’m concerned, these are all good things. No, great things (except maybe the lock-ins). But I must confess that during my youth pastor days, our calendars and programs were so full of education, play, worship, and evangelism that justice and mercy took the back seat. Although I hope that my experience was unique, I fear otherwise. I spoke on behalf of justice and mercy, but gave more attention to other things.

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Now, I’m not an expert on Sabbath, Sabbath-keeping, etc., but I think that is part of the problem.  Let me try and explain what I’m talking about.

I recently got off the phone with a youth pastor who is just flat burned out.  He talked with me about the need he was having for a break, and what I think he was asking for was a Sabbath, a rest, a break from the routine.  This was more than just a time to spend with family; as a matter of fact, from the outside looking in, I thought he was one of the guys who had it all together.  I thought he was pretty balanced in his life at church and home.  From the outside, he seemed like he was doing okay.  Apparently I was wrong.

He didn’t have an affair, not even on the radar screen.  He didn’t have a meltdown, loss of work ethic, fractured marriage, or kids who hated him.  He didn’t have a board that was too demanding, a slave driver as a senior pastor, or a youth staff that expected him to be at everything and do it all himself.  He was just dying from the inside out.  His pastor was shocked when he told him how he felt.  The board was supportive but a little bewildered by his request for a sabbatical.  How does this happen?  How do we get here?

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By: Mark Hayse

Professor, MidAmerica Nazarene University

“What is global ministry, anyway?”

That’s the question that kept crossing my mind as I read Gary Hartke’s comments in the first issue of The Academy Today. What defines global ministry? Programs and sermons that look alike and sound alike no matter where you go?

As David Gonzalez wrote in the last issue, we live in “a great global village” sustained by transportation and media technologies. Technology truly brings the world closer together. However, those same technologies that can make us one also threaten to make us all the same. For example, Facebook may free us to talk together across cultures, but it also restricts our speech by reducing our creativity to the same format. We make that trade every time that we use media technology. Media technology both sharpens and dulls our communication at the same time. If you would like to read more about this idea, then check out these two books by Shane Hipps: The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Your Faith, and Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith.

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