See You At The Pole has been around more than 25 years now and deserves thoughtful consideration - does this still work? Is it still a good idea? I recently read an article from back in 2008 that strongly said "no, it's outlived its usefulness." I have encouraged students to participate in See You At The Pole for the last twenty years and I recently had to ask myself, why am I still doing that? Here are five reasons why I think it still matters.
See You At The Pole, when done well, helps our students to remember several important things - 1) The body of Christ is bigger than our own congregation/denomination. We don't often encourage our students to do anything with believers from other churches, but when students pray with students from other churches in their community, it's a reminder that they are not the only believers in their school - they need that encouragement! It's a reminder to students that the family of God is bigger than they realized in their own community, let alone the world. And there's a lot of learning, growing, encouragement, and kingdom work that can come from that! 2) We live in a big world and God cares about that world. We generally do "God stuff" with our students at church, unless it's a mission trip where we go somewhere else, but what about the world right around us? I believe See You At The Pole is valuable because it reminds us that the world is bigger than our own little bubble. Our community, let alone the world, is bigger than our own four walls. There are people out there not connected with our church or any church and God cares about them! At one time, the church was the center of our communities. Over time, schools have taken the place of the church as the center of community - just go to a Friday night football game or a spring musical. Praying at school matters because that's where the people are and it's a reminder that our faith is not meant to be kept to ourselves. We are blessed by God to be a blessing to others. See You At The Pole should be a reminder to students to love and serve those we are praying for. 3) God loves the people around them and He wants to show His love through them. By attending public school, students are surrounded by others with different beliefs, attitudes, convictions - and that's a good thing. What a great place to apply the commands of Jesus such as "Love your neighbor", "be salt and light", "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (paraphrased). It's easy to be a Christian at church. Anyone can do that. But if students can be like Jesus at school, that's a good indication that their faith is genuine. See You At The Pole should be a reminder that God's love for them is meant to be shared, it's meant to be given away! Students should be encouraged to pray for their fellow students at SYATP and follow that up with loving, serving, and blessing them, especially those who are different from them. 4) We can't separate the sacred and the secular. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul says "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" (NIV). I believe we have a tendency to compartmentalize spiritual activities and "other" activities. But we shouldn't - EVERYTHING we do should be done for God's glory including academics, sports, friendships, leadership, music, art, language, etc! When students pray at their flagpoles, it should be a reminder that everything they do it that school building has spiritual importance (just as much as at Church) and should be done to the glory of God. 5) It illustrates publicly something we desperately need But why do kids have to stand outside the school around a flagpole? Why is a public display necessary? Well, we certainly can do a lot of praying privately behind closed doors. However, I don't remember a time when people were more desperate for answers for the confusion, fear, and turmoil in our world today. Things in our country and around the world have gotten pretty crazy to say the least. I think that the public display of humble, quiet prayer gives people a glimpse of hope in the midst of the multiplicity of tragedies we've seen in recent years. What are people supposed to do in these times? I think teenagers in our country need to see with their own eyes people who have a source of hope that's bigger than the problems we face. In years past we used to use phrases like "take a stand for Christ", "be bold about your faith", "set your school on fire" and so on when we talked about See You At The Pole. While these were helpful at that time, I think some better ways of expressing it now might be "show God's love to your school", "be a blessing because God has blessed you", "don't just tell, but BE good news in your school". However we encourage it, I believe that students who follow Jesus still need concrete, tangible ways to help them remember that following Jesus is an all-the-time, everywhere kind of thing. We take Him with us wherever we go, even to school. For that reason I'll keep encouraging students to go to See You At The Pole.
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I recently came across this quote that I read 16 years ago, but I think it still is true today...
"Nothing has contributed as greatly to the pursuit of the Great Commission over the past 300 than youth ministry. The reason is simple: youth ministry is effective. An overwhelming majority of those who enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ do so before they leave their teen years. Couple this well-established fact with this trend: the youthfulness of the world’s population is ever increasing. These factors alone should cause every church and youth group to prioritize and expand their efforts to reach youth with the Good News of Jesus Christ." -- Mike King, Millenial Leap: Launching a Strategic Citywide Youth Ministry Model for the 21st Century In the past, when I've gotten discouraged about working this students, this quote has encouraged me and I'm thankful I came across it again. For all of us in youth ministry, what we do matters in the plan of God for reaching the world! I'm also grateful that Mark Matlock and Greg Stier have also recently reaffirmed that value of youth ministry to the church and the kingdom of God (see here and here). YOUTH WORKERS, keep going, keep serving, keep teaching, keep loving teenagers and helping them love God! Occassionally, I hear the question asked, "Why do we even need denominations?" I personally love helping people from all over the body of Christ work together, but I do believe that denominations serve several good purposes. (DISCLAIMER: I'm making lots of generalizations here and these are non-research based opinions).
First, local churches need some kind of structure and accountability. Denominations provide local churches with an oversight, resources, and a kind of stability. And as I think about the history of the church, it seems like a de-centralized authority structure is necessary to provide checks and balances for the entire Body which we'll need until Jesus returns to earth. I think only Jesus could rule the entire Church. Second, I think denominations help keep the whole church balanced theologically. When one part of the church emphasizes one aspect of the spiritual life too much, another part of the church brings emphasis back to forgotten aspects. It's so easy for us to go off on theological tangents that we need other believers to remind us of the other importants parts of the gospel (i.e., truth and grace, faith and works, God's part, our part, etc.). Third, and this is similar to point 2, I think God uses different churches to bring good things to the rest of the body. Reformed churches have given all of us some solid theological thinking. Baptist churches remind us to keep winning souls. Pentecostal and Charismatic churches have given us fresh forms of worship and reminded us of how much we need the Holy Spirit. Anglican and Lutheran churches help us connect with our history (including emphasis on the practice of communion). Methodist churches have helped us keep our social conscience. Non-denominational churches have inspired us to stay on the cutting edge. My point is God has a lot of gifts for the whole body of Christ in these different churches. Although some churches and some entire denominations have left the faith, lets diligently stand for truth AND diligently connect with others who are doing the same even if they are in a different church. And let's appreciate what the different parts of the Body of Christ have to offer to the rest of us! Instead of focusing on what divides us, let's focus on what unites us. Let's learn from each other and benefit from how God has blessed all of us. A good bit, though not enough, has been written about youth pastors serving as a resource to public schools (here’s a recent article by Adam McLane). But I believe that public schools are a great resource to youth pastors.
Generally, a youth pastor’s top priority is to help the students in their churches learn to follow Jesus. But the fact is that your students spend five days a week, seven or more hours a day, 180 days a year at school – at least five times as many hours as they spend at church. School, not church, is the environment they spend the most time in. Becoming followers of Jesus must include following Him all that time they spend at school. But that’s not a bad thing. Here’s why: 1. If your students can live their faith at school, that’s great evidence that their faith is genuine. Scripture speaks a lot about the testing of our faith. In fact, it’s been said that an untested faith is no faith at all. As we all know, anybody can be a Christian at church – that’s easy. But school forces students to decide every day to honor God, or not. School is second only to home as an indicator of how real a student’s faith is. 2. If your students can serve God in their schools, they’ll be able to do it anywhere. We all know Jesus’ pattern for the growth of the church in Acts 1:8 – “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Your students’ schools are their Jerusalem! Whatever God has in store for the rest of their life, nothing will prepare them better than being a witness right now right where they are. In fact, if they can do ministry in that environment, they’ll be ready to go anywhere God sends them! According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, 90% of American kids go to public school. This fact alone makes public schools a great mission field for your students. 3. If they face challenge of living and sharing their faith at school, they will feel the need of what you teach them at youth group. As Greg Stier points out, evangelism fuels and creates a hunger for discipleship - “…challenging our teens to take the risk of evangelism can lead to the reward of our teens growing deeper in their faith faster than we could have ever imagined. Evangelism, especially among one’s friends, makes you desperately dependent on God’s Spirit. And it is this dependency which produces spiritual growth (John 15:1-8.).” I believe Jesus sent his disciples on short term mission trips for this very reason. They came back wanting to learn more! Obviously, public school is not the right place for all students, but I believe that encouraging your students in school to live their faith there is one of the greatest ways to apply everything you teach them. Here are just a few practical ideas to help them live out their faith. • Carry their Bible to school (a great conversation starter) • Sit with the kid at lunch who is always alone • Ask their friends, “How can I pray for you?” • Pray over their food at lunch time • Start a campus ministry (a great way to develop their leadership skills) • Lead outreaches on campus Do you want to make sure your students are following Jesus after they leave your youth ministry? Public schools give you a chance to help them follow Jesus when you aren’t around right now. unstated premise: all people, gay and straight, look for love in all of the wrong places
(unstated because I hope to sneak past what CS Lewis called “the watchful dragons” – to share truth with immediately raising defenses that would dismiss what is said) I was once part of an event where we needed to order 600 pizzas to feed all of the people who were coming – we called a local pizza place and they told us there was no way they could fill that order themselves. It was simply too big . Other pizza places had to be called to help fill the order. Love is a lot like pizza. I have a theory which is the premise for this article – the human desire to be loved far exceeds the human capacity to give love. Why would I say such a thing? If you think about it, most of the pain and heartache we experience in life does not come from people we don’t know. The deepest hurts come from those whom we thought loved us, who should love have us, and even those who truly do love us. And yet no matter how many times we get disappointed, we continue to look for love in other human beings. Is that wrong? No I don’t think so, but when we place our insatiable hunger to be loved on another human being with that insatiable hunger, we are bound to be disappointed. And so a junior high boy gets his heart broken by a girl who does not like him in return. The girl in senior high goes from one bad boy to the next. The guy in college tries to prove himself to his father to hear one word of loving approval. The woman in her late twenties sleeps with multiple partners in search of the right man. The married man finds himself looking elsewhere to find the love he should have with his wife. The parent lives vicariously through their child and the child lives with resentment toward the parent. The married woman goes to reads romance novels to get a taste of the love denied her. In a million different ways, we all hunger for, look for, strive for, fight for, and hope for love – but there seem to be very few of who are not disappointed to some degree. And I think this is why the discussion on marriage in this country has gotten rather heated lately – we all just want to be loved! What’s wrong with that for crying out loud? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it – but I do believe we will all continue to experience heartbreak and disappointment so long as we try to find infinite love from finite sources. And this is where I believe that the Bible offers hope to every human being. It tells us that there is a source of Love that is unlimited. There is a Person in the universe, the One who made the universe, who is overflowing with love – there is an eternal, infinite, and perfect source of love at the heart of the universe! And the Bible offers even better news – God loves you and me for who we are, what we are, right where we are. Unconditional love and acceptance is exactly what we all look for all of our lives! It’s what we are dying to experience. He loves us with all of our flaws, our brokenness, our stubbornness, our self-destructive decisions, and even our outright rebelliousness. He loves us so much that He sent His son to this planet to seek us out and to die for us so that we can experience His love and grace and mercy. But God’s love has a curious effect – while God loves us for who we are, He loves us enough to transform us into the people He originally created us to be. God has a destiny in mind for each of us, a person He originally designed us to be. The big question is, do we want to experience God’s love enough that we’ll allow Him to make us the strong, beautiful, brave, amazing, loving, kind, good, caring, courageous person that He wants us to be (He makes us like Himself, letting His perfect qualities grow inside of us)? The thought of God changing me can be terrifying especially if I’m committed to maintaining an identity I’ve worked hard to create for myself. But to experience ultimate love is to be changed by that Love. If God made me, if God loves me, if God came to this planet to sacrifice His own life and blood for me, I have good reasons to trust that his transforming work in me will be a very good thing. One other effect of experiencing God’s love – when my insatiable hunger for love is filled by infinite love, suddenly my capacity to love others exponentially increases. I no longer need to insist that others love me, meet my needs, and fulfill my desires. I can focus on let the love of God overflow from my heart into the lives of others. So where are you looking for love? How is that working for you? What you really want in the depths of your heart is out there. It just might not be where you thought it was. I suppose that, like Martin Luther five hundred years ago, most of us in ministry have strong feelings about what we'd like to change about the church. These are some of the convictions I've developed over the past decade of ministry. These are somewhat untried and untested ideas, but I really believe these things.
1. No one one church is or should act like it's the whole body of Christ. 2. The value of denominations is in what the uniquely offer to the Body of Christ not what separates them from the rest of the Body. 3. "When God looks at a city, He doesn't see many churches; He sees one church in many congregations." - Ed Silvoso 4. For the good of the kingdom and for the wise use of God's resources small churches need to join forces, pool resources, even merge together! (heresy, I know.) 5. God has blessed large churches to be a blessing to the rest of the body of Christ. 6. "The purpose of unity is not 'unity for the sake of unity' but to demonstrate that God's truth is true." - Mike King 7. A divided Body of Christ is a defeated Body of Christ. 8. Youth pastors and young pastors are the best candidates for forging unity (new wine and new wineskins and all that). 9. A church united is extremely difficult requiring, and thus demonstrating, the supernatural love of God. 9.5. This kind of love is what the world is waiting to see. Those are my thoughts about building a better church. I'd love to hear yours. I've been doing youth ministry for twelve years now (that's me this past Saturday) and every so often, usually a couple times a year, I start asking myself "Why am I doing this?", "What is it that I'm really supposed to be doing here?", "Why don't I go get a real job flippin' burgers or something?" I have to admit, discouragement creeps in at times! The pay is not good, things never go like you plan them to, people don't often see the "vital" importance of what we do, and youth ministry feels a lot like herding cats. Why should I keep doing this stuff?
Well, when those dark moods come over me, four big ideas keep bringing me back into focus... 1) "The local church is the hope of the world" - Bill Hybels Of all our nations' institutions, the church offers something very unique. Schools provide education, doctors provide medication, hospitals provide operations, government provides legislation, prisons provide incarceration, but only the church offers transformation of the human heart through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Therefore, I believe with all my heart that every church needs a healthy, growing youth ministry - because every teenagers needs Jesus and a church family. 2) "When God looks at a city, he does not see many churches, He sees one church in many congregations." - Ed Silvoso For the past four hundred years churches have been competing with each other. The splintering of the body of Christ into thousands of pieces has been a long, sad story. I believe passionately that someday the church will move away from competing against each other to completing each other - realizing that no one church/denomination is the whole body and that we will never fulfill the great commission alone. We must work together! Some competition is good to challenge us and keep us from becoming mediocre, but we need to see churches communicating with each other, cooperating with each other and completing each other in building the Kingdom. Therefore, I believe that every community needs a network of church youth ministries - because we can do this better when we do it together! Here's an article I wrote three years ago called "From Competing to Completing" if you'd like to read more about this idea. 3) Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell; I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell." - C.T. Studd All missionaries have known for centuries that to reach a group of people you have to go where they are and the group of people that youth pastors want to reach spend most of their time all together in one place - school. Kids spend five days a week, 180 days a year, 7 or 8 hours a day (or more if they're in any kind of activity) at school. And all of our churches have students in public schools - what happens at local schools affects all of our kids. Therefore, I'm convinced that every school needs reached by a network of churches. When youth pastors/youth leaders come together one of big questions should be, "What can we do together to serve our local schools and to reach students in that place?" A youth pastor named Mark Moder observed in article called "Where Students Are" that if we are called to be fishers of men, we should remember that fish swim in schools. 4) "If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for." - C H Spurgeon I love this quote - it just reminds me that we can never say "we have a lot of people in our church, that's good enough". Every person needs to hear about Jesus. I believe passionately that every students needs an opportunity to hear about Jesus and to get connected with a local church. There are 50,000 teenagers in this part of southwestern Pennsylvania - that's serious job security - I'm never going to run out of work here! So, no, I'm definitely not resigning from youth ministry. I have four great reasons to get out of bed every morning and to keep doing what I'm doing. Most of all, I want to do it because Jesus loves me and calls me to follow Him no matter how hard it is, no matter what happens. Jesus is worth it all. Sometimes I just need to remind myself what this is all about. I have to say a big "Thank You!" to my wife, Judy, who keeps encouraging to do this and to my partner in Teens For Christ, Pete Malik, who helped me find God's calling for my life. And I thank you to for letting me express my heart to you in this post. |
WHO I AM
I'm a follower of Jesus, husband to my lovely wife Judy, father of Evangelina, Micah, Josiah, and Jeremiah, missionary to the northeast United States and advocate for all things youth ministry. WHAT I DO
I am the northeast regional coordinator for the National Network of Youth Ministries. I've worked for the last 24 years as the co-executive director of Teens For Christ, a ministry that equips teenagers to share their faith in their schools. I also served on staff at Cherry Tree Alliance Church for 15 years as youth pastor and family life pastor. My Websites
Youth Ministry Consultations Youth Ministry Networking 9 Month Mission Trip Speaking at camps, retreats, youth groups, etc. Archives
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