Chris Kidd – applied youth ministry

Felt God prompt me during our worship in church to drop my prepared talk on Micah 5 and speak off the cuff on Psalm 145 tonight to our young people.  I think there are so many bits to take from this Psalm, have a read, I pray God will speak to you too through it:

A psalm of praise. Of David.

¹ I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.

² Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.

³ Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.

⁴ One generation will commend your works to another;
they will tell of your mighty acts.

⁵ They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and I will meditate on your wonderful works.

⁶ They will tell of the power of your awesome works,
and I will proclaim your great deeds.

⁷ They will celebrate your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

⁸ The LORD is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.

⁹ The LORD is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made.

¹⁰ All you have made will praise you, O LORD;
your saints will extol you.

¹¹ They will tell of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might,

¹² so that all men may know of your mighty acts
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
The LORD is faithful to all his promises
and loving toward all he has made. ^[c

¹⁴ The LORD upholds all those who fall
and lifts up all who are bowed down.

¹⁵ The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.

¹⁶ You open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

¹⁷ The LORD is righteous in all his ways
and loving toward all he has made.

¹⁸ The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.

¹⁹ He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.

²⁰ The LORD watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.

²¹ My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD.
Let every creature praise his holy name
for ever and ever.

Some more youth ministry links and thoughts:

• Teenage girls ‘living on one meal a day’: Teenage girls are regularly skipping up to two meals a day because they think they are overweight, according to a new survey examining children’s lives.
• Auschwitz launches a Facebook page: The Polish authorities in charge of Auschwitz have launched an official site for the former Nazi death camp on the social networking website Facebook. A spokesman said the move was aimed at reaching the younger generation and educating them about the Holocaust.
• Facebook cuts drop out rates : Social networking websites such as Facebook are helping to reduce college drop-out rates, Gloucestershire College says social networking is used to keep students informed and in touch with staff.
• Supergirl meltdown: How middle-class girls today are under unprecedented pressure to succeed: Perfect grades, perfect bodies, perfect boyfriends, welcome to Generation Supergirl – the young women who are supposed to have everything.
• Cleaning Up an Event As You Go: Josh has some great tips on cleaning up events quicker, we’ve been trying to do something similar with our Friday night youth work.
• Points of Clarification for Young People: Michael Wade points some humourous observations for young people to take note of.
• The youth specialties/zondervan/youthworks story, from where i stand: Marko blogs on the YS/Zondervan news of the last few weeks.
• Catalyst, NYWC, Open Space and Future Conventions – part 1, part 2, and part 3: Mark Riddle expresses stuff that I really agree with about ministry conferences, I don’t always want big names, I want real ministers.
• The Brett Favre – John Piper Conspiracy: Stephen highlights John Pipers influence.
• Ministers Need Friends: awesome post by Adam on the need for support outside of church

A while ago Kem Meyer blogged on the top 5 places to start reading in the Bible, given it’s a question I’ll often be asked by young people, I thought I’d add my views on this.  The crucial thing is that they aren’t too long, and are a good introduction:

• Mark / John … to learn about Jesus
• Acts … to learn about the early church
• Proverbs … fantastic widsom, bite-sized chunks to chew over

I’m absolutely loving the banter and fun times that are happening in the office due to having our three ministry apprentices this year.

I want us to continue to have lots of fun together, but that actually we go deeper than that.  In 1 Corinthians 12:12 Paul writes “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.”

My hope is that together we …

• Capture the vision: we need to be really clear what it is as a team and as individuals we’re called to do.  From our vision of every young person having life changing encounters with Jesus, we’ve developed a plan which includes 35 key targets for this academic year – I want the team to know what it is we’re chasing after, and critically what those individual targets contribute to that wider vision.
• Be real: the fun and laughter are crucial, but I hope we go deeper, there’s been moments when deep things have been shared with each other, I hope that openness and honesty continues to grow.
• Big up each other: let’s celebrate each other’s successes – already our apprentices have done some wonderful work, let’s keep using opportunities to celebrate those moments.