What I Need from Others

1. People who are proactive for me - These people see a problem, situation, or issue brewing and take care of it. I don't have to go to them and say, "hey can you talk to that disruptive student", they just do it. They hear gossip and shut it down. They see the student who hasn't had their medicine all weekend and go sit next to them because they know distraction is on the horizon.

2. People who protect me - I want people around me that I can trust. These people will have my back. They will fight for me if someone throws out something that is not true. They will keep me from putting myself in a bad situation.

3. People who are honest with me - These people care about me enough to tell me the truth about things. They will let me know if my talk wasn't so great but in the most compassionate way. They will be honest if the event was one of the best events we have ever put on. They have a spirit of authenticity.

4. People who care about me - These people know what I am all about. They know my heart. They know about my family and what is going on in my family. They spend time talking and really listening without being critical. They just love me for me.

What do you need from others?

Leadership Development

A Simple Pattern for Leadership Development
I Do, You Watch
I Do, You Help
You Do, I Help
You Do, I Watch
You Do, Someone Else Watches You

Who are you developing?

Be a Man!

“Most young single guys spend their time playing video games, watching porn, drinking tons of cheap beer, and going to the Taco Bell drive-thru after midnight. Pastors—quit being wusses, and tell your young men that it’s time to grow up, quit living for themselves, and follow Christ.” -The Resurgence

Bowlin'

I remember when bowl cuts were the coolest. I might just have see if I can dig out some old pictures. Sophomore and Junior Year were pretty awesome for the bowl cut. Check this video out from Tripp & Tyler show at the Catalyst conference. Good stuff!

For the Youth Pastors

In case you haven't seen this yet. We can't all be this cool. Just be you!

Join the Movement

A student approached me after church with an idea of how we can share the message of Christ during the easter week. This is what she decided to do.

I want everybody to join me THIS friday, good friday, to draw black circles on your hands (like nail marks) to represent how when you decided give your life to Christ you died with Christ of your sins and follow him. This will give everybody an opportunity to share the true meaning of good friday with everyone :) wear them all day friday 4/2/10 and tell all your friends!

Share this with your friends and repost it to your blogs, twitter, facebook, etc. Lets start a movement!

Quality Links

I haven't done this in a while so I thought I would share a few entries that really impacted me over the last few weeks.

• My friend and fellow blogger Jan Owen posted some bone chilling facts about Rwanda on her blog. What will we do to meet the needs? She is there right now. Pray for her as she as the opportunity to minister globally and especially for the people of Rwanda.
• Clayton King posted a powerful letter on his blog from a pastor. I think we have all felt this way at some point. Are we protecting our pastors and leaders?
• John Piper posted a powerful message about giving. How generous are we? I pray my heart is always generous no matter my circumstances.
• The Swerve had a great series of video posts. This one specifically impacted me. It is some great stuff from Joel A'Bell about releasing leaders. Quality stuff!

Let us all constantly be learning because if we aren't learning we aren't leading.

5 Ways to Make Your Student Indifferent to God

5 Ways to Make Your Student Indifferent to God by Mark Cox

In youth ministry, one of the hardest things I’ve had to experience is leading students into a growing relationship with Jesus, while their parents are doing the opposite. In a lot of cases, the parent wants the best for his/her teenager. It’s just that their definition of “best” might not match up with mine. There are some hard-and-fast rules to engage if you don’t want your teenager to care about God. The following are just a few.

1. Make sure their extra-curricular activities are priority over church. You should always make sure that their scholarships are intact, and that they don’t get kicked off the team. That’s definitely more important than their relationship with Christ and eternity, for that matter.

2. When your teenager screws up, ground them from church. Of course! If they don’t care that you take away their TV, cell phone, or friend time, hit them where it hurts. Take away church. Yeah – that oughta do it.

3. Don’t call them out when they need guidance. Always let them make their own mistakes. And if they’re about to do something super-destructive, it’s probably best that they learn on their own. Because learning it the hard way is always the necessary path, right?

4. Talk negatively about your church staff around your teenager. If your pastor messes up, make sure that you call a family meeting to roast him. You should definitely let your teenager know that people can’t be trusted, especially incompetent church leaders. Your teenager needs to know that trusting church leaders isn’t smart! If they don’t trust church leaders, there’s a small chance they’ll ever accept God’s direction in their life. And that’s the safer way to live.

5. Don’t model real faith. At the end of the day, the last thing you want to do, if you want your teenager to ignore God’s voice, is to follow it yourself.

Please know my heart on this issue. We parents need to be leading our families to Jesus every chance we get. Maybe it’s time to take inventory of who or what we’re actually leading our families to.

After all, actions speak louder than words.

Mark Cox is the Student Pastor at Indian Springs Baptist Church. Stalk him at his blog www.thinknextnow.com or on Twitter @markhcox.

Do you just work here?

Great post to check out from Seth Godin's blog. Worth the Read.

Click Here to Read

What do you think?

Where Have I Been?

This summer has been crazy! God has been doing so many things.

1. We found out Michelle is pregnant with our 4th child, which is due February 2nd. Reality...it will probably be a few weeks before that. We are getting ready excited.
2. I spent 12 days in Guatemala doing missions with our students and adults. It was truly an amazing trip. God challenged me to think about all I had and how I would be a better steward of what my family has.

   MX09 Guatemala - recap from Josh Britt on Vimeo.

3. Spent a weekend in July speaking and leading worship for FBC Decatur in Panama City Beach, Florida. It was a blast getting to hangout with those students. A plus to this event was my family being able to come with me.
4. After Speaking and leading worship we had the opportunity as a family to vacation a little long in Panama City. We had a great time at the beach and at the "kitty cat" pool.
5. Spent a week at Super Summer Alabama leading worship and teaching in one of the schools. It was a great week with several 100 students growing in their depth and knowledge of God. It was an amazing camp experience. It impacted the students that went. We hope to take several more students next year.

Wow!!! Summer isn't even over yet. You can follow the craziness in our lives at twitter and through our student ministry blog.