I had a crazy week meeting with my YMCP cohort. For some reason I just  couldn’t get focused. I was distracted and distracting. Often, I would get an idea and be so amped in my head that I couldn’t settle down enough to articulate it to the rest of the group. Knowing this only made it worse. I was beginning to become a bit paranoid about myself and my appearance. Then something cool happened.

Now friend and guerilla thinker, Jeff Goins, was talking to me about writing. Why do I think he is a guerilla thinker? He challenged me a lot this weekend probably without ever even knowing it. He is a soldier Drill Sergeant in the war on Christian mediocrity.

Hanging with Jeff, I started thinking about why I began writing in the first place. It wasn’t that I wanted to be famous for writing (if that’s my objective, I really need to rethink what I am doing). It all started with a curiosity about youth ministry. I wondered what youth ministry would be like if I got rid of some of the stereotypes. You know those right? Youth ministry should be fun, game oriented, attractional. It should make young adults do things like pray more, read their Bible more, attend church more, do less risky behavior, not drink or have sex. These are all good things, don’t get me wrong, but starting from that presupposition had limited my view of youth ministry and what it could do in the lives of teens. Worse, it limited what God could do through me.

So I started asking lots of questions of myself and others. I started trying new things that would counteract some of those old ways. Well, it wasn’t long before God started using this newfound freedom in me. It was more about who I was created to be, and curiosity was the vehicle for showing me that.

There has been a lot of thought about the future of youth ministry. I hope that curiosity drives that future.

Here are two videos about how wonder and curiosity should shape our vision of the future of youth ministry.

Last night I had two great surprises. One was when an out of town student was able to come. She lives over an hour away and doesn’t make it often. So last night was a treat.

We talked at length last night about the requirements for being a Christian. I love this talk for teens because it is usually an affirmation of their faith. I always approach this question with the verse from Romans 10:9 – “For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (NLT). So we call Jesus savior because he saves us  by grace through the justification of our sins. We also call him Lord because we are expected to follow him and through sanctification. Both of these things are what the Bible describes as saving faith. We talked about faith, a right relationship and obedience.

The last word usually trips teens up. They know just like anyone one that they aren’t perfectly obedient. So they question their faith. I just happens that I am working on an article about teaching obedience, so we dove right into this paradox. How does is escape the church’s perspective that all of the things that make us a Christian pale against experiencing God’s love?

I had never thought about it explicitly, but last night I wondered about this. We had an infant baptism yesterday morning. I love those, because it is also a reaffirmation of our faith. I also grew up in the Baptist church and have a certain affinity for immersion and believer’s baptism. Never have I heard in either situation a call to experiencing God’s love as vital to our faith.

Here’s where I land the ship. Yes, we need salvation, and yes we need obedience. I don’t think those are in question here, but why isn’t the love of Christ stressed in our vows and continually through our discipleship afterwards? Isn’t it through Jesus’ love that we learn to obey? I think that the appeal to our hearts is clear through the Bible. With all the teaching lately about the need to engage our hearts, I hope the future of the church includes teaching the necessity of God’s love.

Mark Oestreicher, who I have lately gotten to know as a friend, has a great series starting out on his blog. Marko has been a nationally recognized leader in youth ministry for more than a decade and has used his influence in a really creative way. He asked other leader to answer this one question, “What is the future of youth ministry?” The answers have been nothing if not instructive.

Check him out here.