From Sampler to Sower

A Woodcutter's Toolbox for Youth Ministry

It’s wintertime in Indiana, and that means at least two things at my house.

We’re literally burning through the firewood I stockpiled like a responsible ant while all you grasshoppers were out playing last winter.

And in anticipation of the likely advent of another winter roughly 12 months from now, I’m spending my Wednesdays (my day off) making sure I have another pile well stocked for next winter.  And so it was that I spent about six hours of quality time with my chain saw Wednesday afternoon.

And that got me thinking.

Every time I go woodcutting, there are a handful of things that I take with me.  Some of them are necessary for the task at hand.  Some of them are just to make the job more pleasant.  And today, I realized some of them could be valuable in youth ministry.

Below are five items from my woodcutting toolbox that would be an asset to any youth pastor.  And I’ve even made each image a link to Amazon.com so you can buy some for yourself, should you so choose.

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Tim Schmoyer at Life in Student Ministry got me thinking recently.  One of his (and my) favorite posts is his article 100 Blog Topics I Hope YOU Write About.  And in that list of ideas for youth ministry bloggers is this nugget at #25: “Sermon presentations versus small group discussion Bible studies.”  That got me thinking about why I do what I do.  Our backbone event is built around the preaching of the Word.  Preaching is central to our youth ministry and the essential core of my calling.

Then again, I don’t know that “versus” is necessarily the right word.  There is a place for both small group discussions and sermon presentations in youth ministry, and both take place as a part of our youth ministry at Water’s Edge.  But they aren’t the same, and – truth be told – if you told me I could only do one or the other, I would choose to preach.

I believe in preaching

Of course such a blanket statement then begs the question “why?”

I’m so glad you asked.

There is a unique and spiritual power that comes with the preaching of God’s Word.  If you don’t believe me, all I need to do is point you to some of the greatest sermons ever preached.  Take for example my favorite sermon of all time, Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” sermon.

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A family helped by Heifer International

I’ve been giving my youth group a Christmas gift for about as long as I’ve been doing youth ministry.  Honesty, I only vaguely remember what most of them were.  I remember having to shop carefully to find something that I could afford to give each of my teens on a youth pastor’s salary.  And I remember some pretty cheesy gifts that I hoped would have some meaning.  I remember candy canes one year (complete with a card explaining the “significance” of candy canes for them to ignore).  I remember apple Christmas tree ornaments, and an explanation of the origins of the Christmas tree tradition.  And I remember some bookmarks, though when it comes to what they said, I’ve no clue.

And while I have only vague recollections, I secretly suspect that I’m the only one with any memories at all.  My teens have long forgotten the gifts I so carefully selected.

But there are two gifts that stick out.

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My friend and colleague, Todd Owens, recently had an interesting idea on his blog: set your iPod to random shuffle and list the first 15 songs that play.  Seemed like an interesting way to get a look into one’s musical tastes.  Of course, I put everything and anything on my 160GB iPod classic.  And given the fact that our youth ministry subscribes to YLO: the works from Interlinc, everything and anything ends up being a lot of things, many of which have nothing to do with my personal tastes.  (If they did, I can guarantee there wouldn’t be any KJ-52 albums on there.)  So I tweaked the challenge a little.  Here’s a random shuffle of the 197 songs in my “My Top Rated” playlist: (more…)

I suppose you may be wondering why I chose to call this blog “Sampler to Sower”.  And a smart alec would probably tell you, “Because ‘pastorbuhro.com’ sounded way too boring.”  But since everyone knows I’m no smart alec, here’s the real scoop:

My philosophy of ministry states “I minister in order to help teens on the journey of eight steps, from sampler to sower.”  As the blog grows, I’ll write more about this journey, because it lies at the heart of everything I do as a youth pastor.  But here’s the short and the sweet: (more…)