Many years ago, I played poker pretty regularly. I remember one time we had a poker tournament at my house for a friends birthday. It was real high stakes, like $10 buy-in.

We played poker for hours until it was down to just two people: me and another guy we called ‘the Bean Farmer’. Heads up can take a long time as each player is waiting for just the right cards. And then it came. I was dealt a big pair of twos. I decided I would play them because I was getting tired.

The flop came (the first three cards) and there was an ace showing. The Bean Farmer started betting big. I knew he had an ace in his hand (that gave him a pair of aces) and would easily beet my pair of twos, but I called anyway. The turn was no help and the Bean Farmer bet big again. I called. The river came and it was a two! I now had three twos and he only had a pair of aces. I was sure to win.

I’ve seen many people in my circumstance. They know they have the best hand (three twos), but they just can’t let go of the little possibilities—what if the other guy has three of a kind too? Won’t his beat mine? What if I’m missing something?

Doubters will surely only bet a little on the next hand. That means they will only win a little and in the end, they will almost always lose everything.

Not me, though. I went all in. I knew I had the best cards and I bet everything I had on it. I play to win.

Many of us—yes even youth workers—live our Christian lives like the apprehensive, doubting poker players. We just aren’t willing to give Jesus everything we have. I’m preparing to teach on Wednesday night out of Ecclesiastes 5. You can download my notes if you want.

Like any good passage, it should preach to you before you preach it to your youth group. I read this:

When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?

Ecclesiastes 5.4-6

Haven’t we all made a vow to God? Haven’t we committed ourselves to sound doctrine and vowed to serve God with all our lives? Haven’t we said, ‘Lord, where you lead, there will I go’? Yet so often we fall out of zealousness. We become complacent in our ministries. We do the minimum required of us.

As I read the passage, I felt as if God were saying:

You vowed to serve me with everything you have. Do not delay in paying what you have vowed, for I have no pleasure in such foolishness. It would have been better that you never vowed to go into ministry, than that you drag your feet and push against my calling for you. Don’t make excuses for your behavior. Why should I have to destroy all that I have done in you, to sanctify you for my good works?

You have been called, Christian, into the service of the Almighty. Do not delay in completing your vow. You have one foot in the world. You work to your own gain and not to the gain of Christ. Repent, that God would not destroy the work He began in you.

It has become clear to me that there is ministry to be done everywhere. Too many of Christ’s servants are holding back—they have been dealt a winning hand in Christ Jesus, yet they are apprehensive; they doubt God’s perseverance.

Jonah realized that “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs” (Jonah 2.8). Will you cling to the worthless idols of the world? I entreat you, pay what you have vowed, lest your work be destroyed and the grace that God desired for you be forfeit.

My prayer is that as God’s word so challenged you today, that our youth ministries would be reformed as you recommit yourself to the work of Christ in your churches and communities.

As Westerners, we often forget that many in other areas of the world are being persecuted in unimaginable ways. Still, God’s word is incredible. The principles that apply here, apply everywhere and in all times. Take this example: Olajumoke from Nigeria asks:

What is the difference between being tolerant as a Christian (of insults and the likes) and being timid?

Tolerance in this context has to do with tolerating those who persecute us as Christians. Timidity has to do with fear. To be timid is to lack the confidence and self-assurance to follow through with your actions.

Let’s say you are confronted with some sort of conflict. If you are tolerant, you are in control of the situation. But, if you are timid, the other person is in control.

The tolerant man wisely chooses to allow the persecution to persist because he fears the Lord and for the sake of the gospel. The timid person allows the persecution to persist for his own well being because he fears the one who persecutes him.

Olajumoke is facing very direct persecution in Nigeria that most of us in the Western world do not face. But, the principles for ministry—even youth ministry—are universal. As youth ministers our calling is first and foremost to a fear of the Lord which instills in us boldness and authority to exhort, rebuke, correct and encourage as the circumstances call for. But in fear of the Lord, we are also empowered to tolerate others for the sake of the Gospel—and we all know youth ministry requires a certain amount of tolerance.

Finally, ‘The fear of the Lord teaches a man wisdom’ (Proverbs 15.33). As we humbly submit ourselves to God’s desires, to learn and to live the Word of God, we gain godly wisdom that enables us to discern the heart of every situation, so that as we will know when to tolerate or not.

For Olajamoke, submit yourself to the Lord and prayerfully seek His will in every situation so that you will have the confidence to tolerate those who persecute you, that they might come to know the truth, through you. Do not fear, for there is no harm that they can cause you which God has not already overcome through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. Your eternity is secure so there is no reason fear.

My prayer is that we can all learn from this question to be fearless proclaimers of the Gospel, that as we exhibit the character of Christ to tolerate the sins of unbelievers while showing them the love of Christ and fearfully seeking the counsel of the Lord, that our ministries will be fruitful and that our lives might be a sweet smelling incense to the Lord.

What’s your hermeneutic? I remember asking my pastor that many years ago after hearing the term at a pastor’s conference he brought me to. A hermeneutic is a set of principles we use for studying the Bible. Most of us who study the word have not thought though our process in great depth. But, like belly buttons, we all have a hermeneutic, whether we realize it or not.

I began exploring hermeneutics during my BA program. I’ve now taken 4 different courses and read dozens of books that tackle the subject. The more you study the deeper it goes. I like this sort of stuff, but most people don’t.

So, I was thinking to myself, ‘Self, what are the basics—the essentials—that one ought to have to interpret the scriptures?’

Out of this flowed this project: Basic Hermeneutics for Youth Workers

The book is not useful exclusively to youth workers, but is geared toward the level of competency you ought to have on the subject. Youth workers are busy. Many of us are volunteers. We don’t have the time to read exhaustive works on the subject and we certainly cannot put all of that information into practice on a weekly basis.

Basic Hermeneutics for Youth Workers is short and sweet. In 10 chapters (Roughly 130 pages) with an intro and a few appendixes for further exploration, it will give you the essential hermeneutic knowledge you will need to wrap your mind around any passage of scripture. And if 130 pages still sounds like a lot, the book has large font and is spaced generously, both to keep it short, but also to make it easy to read and make lots of room to write notes.

I currently have proofs out on order. After a final edit, the book will be available both in eBook form and soft cover. The eBook should be available in formats for all eBook readers and will be sold (in both forms) through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Ingram Networks and FastPencil.

I’m self-publishing to keep control over the cost. I want the book to be uber cheap—not sure what yet—so that many will be able to make use of this resource.

• If you want to be notified when the book is released, please fill out the contact form. I’ll keep a list of people who would like to be notified of the release.
• Also, if you would like to help edit the book, please fill out the contact form. Give me a short list of your credentials and I’ll send you a PDF with the editorial guidelines. When the book is published, I’ll send all legitimate editors a free copy of the book.

Please be praying for this project, that as it goes through its final editorial, that God will anoint it and many will grow in their understanding of the word because of it.

As a youth minister, I’m always looking for ways to contextualize (1 Corinthians 9.20) without identifying with the world (Romans 12.2). Not to mention, I’m still just a kid and I like to have some fun t-shirts. I’m actually considering buying a hoodie from Sevenly.org today.

Sevenly is a charity organization that sells fashionable clothing to the Christian community and donates the proceeds to a charity organization. If you have been following my blog for any length of time, you know that I am part of the Compassion International Blogging Network. For every purchase made this week on Sevenly.org, $7 is donated to Compassion International. (As a bonus, if you have been considering sponsoring a child, you can get the t-shirt free by doing that now.)

Sevenly’s mission is to harness the power of art and community to build sustainable awareness and funding movements that support charities in their efforts to change the world. Already this week, they have raised almost $3k for Compassion International, nearly 50% of their goal. You can help them reach this goal by being a part of their vision: to be the world’s most effective cause activation platform leading a generation toward intentional generosity and love for others.

On my own I can’t seem to make a difference, but together and in Christ we can do immeasurably more than we ever imagined (and get a new hoodie in the process). Will you join me and others in this cause? I pray you do.

May God bless you all in your kingdom work!

Ever since the release of the online Youth Spiritual Gifts Test, many have been requesting an off-line printable version to use in the churches. Well, we are getting closer. You can now print the test questions as well as the answer sheet.

I’ve developed an online tool to quickly enter the scores and print the results. I realize that other tests out there have a key that allows you to calculate the gifts by hand. Due to the method of calculation, this would be far too difficult. But, as I tested the tool, I believe you can enter your results into the computer and print it out far faster than you could calculate the results yourself.

I’m considering the new tool to be in BETA, right now. Please try it out when you can and comment below. If you have features or tweaks that you can suggest to make it easier to use, please let me know and I will plan for a future release.

Thanks and God bless you in your work for the Lord!

Last night we had a Bible study for the youth at my house. We were looking at some of Jesus’ parables. We had a great time with a discussion regarding the Prodigal Son. I presented a perspective on the parable that was a little different than what we are used to hearing. One of the boys asked me to write an essay about it. Since it is very applicable to youth ministry, I decided a blog post would do nicely.

There are four noteworthy characters in the Prodigal Son: The prodigal son, the older son, the Father and the pig farmer…you heard that right, the pig farmer. These four characters create two lines of contrast.

OUTWARD APPEARANCES

The prodigal son participates in outward sin. He goes out into the world against the blessings of his father and he squanders his inheritance. The older son stays under the roof of his father, being obedient to the father in all ways. On the outside, the prodigal is the greater sinner.

But we have to recognize that we all are sinners and fall short of the Father’s glory. The prodigal repents of his sins, returns to the father and is welcomed into the feast. But, the older refuses to repent and enter into the feast. He was a legalist, believing that all of his obedience covered his sins and was unwilling to enter into the feast because he believed that his legalism was superior to the Father’s mercy. This was the attitude of many Pharisees.

We have many ‘prodigals’ and ‘older sons’ in our youth groups. We have many who have come to Christ after experiencing much of what the world had to offer and finding it to be lacking. We have others who were raised in the church and feel they have a greater right to the eternal inheritance than the others.

INWARD CONVICTION AND FAITH

The Pig Farmer is the picture of the world. When the prodigal realized his mistakes he did not run to the Father, he ran to the pig farmer. He served the world in all its filth and was unable to find sustenance from it.

On the other hand, when he returned to the Father, the prodigal experienced all the blessings he had before he had left his Father’s home—and then some!

This is a picture of inward conviction and faith. At the end of the story, the prodigal is living under grace, convicted that he must serve the Father. But, the older son is living in the world. He is serving the pig farmer, yet under the guise of service to the Father. He is worldly, yet claims to be under grace.

We have many in our youth groups that are living in the world and many who are living under grace. Like the prodigal and the older son, outward appearances do not give us an accurate picture of inward conviction.

SOMETHING PRACTICAL

Here is a chart that will help us understand four different types of teens we have in our ministries.

1. Praise the Lord for the prodigals we have seen come into the church from the world and find the grace of Jesus Christ. We need to foster these teens understanding of who Jesus is and help them to understand their role in the kingdom. I wonder what it was like for the prodigal son when the feast was over and it was time to go into the fields to serve the Father. I imagine he could have again become disheartened, forgetting the grace that was poured out on him. So many of our returned prodigals slip back into the world because we do not remind them of the grace they have received.
2. Again, praise the Lord for the older sons who come into the fold of the Father. These are the ones who when beckoned by the Father to come into the feast, do not refuse, but obediently enter and celebrate. I know many of my teens who have never been in the world and experienced it to the depth that we could call them prodigals. Yet, they know their depravity and have come to Jesus for forgiveness, and joyfully share their eternal inheritance. It’s my firm belief that we need to disciple these teens to continue on this path, that they would never choose to live as the world does and become prodigals.
3. I think it is an interesting thing that we see so many prodigals who are still serving the Pig Farmer come into our youth groups. Many come faithfully, hear the gospel and yet return to their previous ways, serving the world all the while knowing they need to serve the Father. As we have these, we need to be faithful to proclaim the gospel and from different passages of scripture. God’s word engages sinners. It’s not our job to save these teens, but the Spirit as He works through the Word. (NOTE: Just because someone professes Christ does not make them a believer. How are they living? Who are they serving?)
4. We must watch out for the older sons who are serving the Pig Farmer. They are easy to ignore because they are altogether ‘good kids’. We may presume they understand the gospel because they were raised in church. Maybe they have even been baptized. But, who are they obedient to? If they are obedient to Mom and Dad and not to Christ, then when they graduate high school, they will fall away. We need to be discipling these, catechizing them with the Word, that they would form inward conviction of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that when they are released into the world in adulthood, they embrace the truth and do not begin to serve the world. These are the hardest teens to identify and to minister to, but by the grace of God, we must.

My prayer for you ministers of the Word is that you would have godly discernment, able to identify the spiritual needs of your youth and that as a result you would be able to minister better to those needs. May God use you richly for His kingdom.

‘Get Outta My Face!’ is written by Rick Horne D.Min. Doctor Rick is the Director of Guidance for Delaware County Christian School and coordinates the graduate level School Guidance Counseling concentration for Columbia International University. He has over thirty years working with teens in the Christian schools and should be able to tell us a lot about how to get through to them.

The primary intention of ‘Get Outta My Face!’ is to provide resources for working with angry or unmotivated teens. I couldn’t help but feel like all of my teens, in some way or another, fall into that category. As I read the book, many of my teens came to mind. Long before I finished the book, I could see elements of the books teaching coming through in my interactions with the teens in our church.

What really impressed me about the book is that Rick doesn’t philosophize or psychoanalyze. He simply presents a method for understanding the teen’s needs and coaching them to meet those needs—and biblically. Rick continually returns to scripture as the foundation of his counseling method. Where Rick’s method isn’t clearly laid out in scripture, the book of Proverbs is used as the theological underpinning of the method.

I’m going to provide you a brief synopsis of the method, but I should really not be calling it a method. It is more of an outline for coaching and building relationships. It’s not a three step process to getting teens on track, but a way to build relationships and point them to the cross where they are able to see clearly and make wise decisions. For simplicity sake, though, I’ll continue calling it a method.

The method is LCLP. An entire chapter is devoted to each of these letters. Reading these chapters is crucial to really understanding the depth of how these principles can be applied. Here are the basic principles:

1. Listening big is to make a connection with the teen so that they trust you. If they don’t trust you, you will never get to the root of the problem.
2. Clarifying narrow is working with the teen to allow them to see the reality of their circumstances—they rarely have a firm grasp on what is frustrating them.
3. Looking wide is working with the teen to find solutions. Rick has some profoundly insightful advice on how to do this.
4. Planning small is making a game plan for resolving the conflict that has caused the teen to become angry or unmotivated.

I would definitely recommend ‘Get Outta My Face!’ for anyone working with teens or for any parent with teens or preteens. I can’t think of anything in this book that I would disagree with. I could sum this book up by saying it is logical, insightful, biblical and practical.

My prayer for the readers of this book is that they will become better equipped to counsel the youth in their lives and point them to the cross for daily sanctification, but also for salvation.

Have you read this book? Comment below and let us know what you thought.

In his book “The Great Giveaway,” David Fitch demonstrates that the modern church ‘gave away’ her mission by becoming more focused on the number of conversions it produces than on the sanctification produced in its faithful congregants. In other words, the modern church focuses its efforts on the preaching of the gospel—which is good—but does not adequately equip those who respond to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.

I agree with this perspective, as far as the public perception of the church. By and large, the church of Jesus Christ is characterized by the public by the mega-churches, who are most likely guilty of this giveaway. But, the average church in the US is 80 members. These smaller churches tend to be far more focused on discipleship and, if anything, neglecting outreach, for some reason or another.

Where the small church culture tends to fall short is in youth ministry. There are two reasons I believe this. First, many churches appear to devalue their youth, sensing that they are not unable, but unwilling to serve Jesus Christ in the church. Second, the youth group is simply too small to warrant much attention.

I’ve mentioned the disturbing statistic that 70% of teens will fall away from the church body when they graduate high school and only 10% will ever come back in their lifetime. I believe this statistic suffices as evidence of my previous observations of youth ministry in the modern church. Bridget from Virginia has identified this in her boyfriend:

I have a boyfriend that has grew up in church and has accepted the Lord when he was little but didn’t know if he meant it and now is struggling and worrying about if he’s going to heaven or hell. He believes in God but I just need tips and help on what things to say and do!

The boyfriend grew up in the church. He has no doubt sat through countless Sunday School classes, many Sunday sermons, many youth group meetings; yet he does not know if he is going to heaven or hell?

This young man needs to be discipled. He needs to know what the scripture has to say about heaven and hell. He appears to believe that God exists, yet he does not know what to do about it. He needs to know what salvation is and how to get it. I’m sure that he knows it’s by faith or belief, but what is biblical faith and belief?

Our youth groups should be first and foremost places of discipleship. We take the professing teens and we disciple them with the fundamental truths of God’s word. That way when trials come, they do not fall away as so many of our teens do, but they run to Jesus to find the way out. In Philippians 4.12-13, the apostle Paul tells us that he has leaned the secret to surviving life’s trials and that secret is the strength of Jesus Christ. Teaching Paul’s secret should be our first and foremost goal with our teens (Ultimate Frisbee, second).

My advice to Bridget (and to any youth worker whose teens are struggling in this same way) is this:

1. Discipleship: She should teach her boyfriend the truth of the gospel and how to live by faith.
2. Reproach: I suspect he is struggling with sin. As a teacher, you can never be the source of the sin of your people. For Bridget, she has to be careful not to entice her boyfriend to sin.
3. Prayer: Don’t just pray for him, but with him. Bridget should pray for her boyfriend, out loud and in his presence and ask him to pray as he is comfortable as well. All the struggles that are shared with you can be shared with God. He can take it.
4. Patience and Encouragement: Genuine life change happens slowly. Be patient and encouraging in all things.
5. Accountability: Bridget needs to hold her boyfriend accountable to his frustrations and if there is an issue of sin, to this as well.

One last area of concern: Bridget can and should perform all these actions with her boyfriend, but he should have a male role model doing it as well. As youth leaders, if we have a teen of the opposite sex, it is great for us to do these things for them, but we ought to take a passive role and pass it off to a mature believer of the same sex, for reasons of reproach—at least whenever possible.

My hope in sharing these thoughts is that we can become youth workers who have a heart for true discipleship. The success of your ministry is gauged by the sanctification of your group, not by numbers. My prayer is that you we will all become youth workers who desire to see our teens sanctified and remain in the church as they graduate, that they would grow further into mature disciples and workers for the kingdom of God.

So, why do you come to eInquisitive? Most people end up on eInquisitive looking for free Bible study materials for youth groups. There are two reasons for this. First, about 22% of eInquisitive’s audience are international youth workers. We get traffic from the largest to the smallest countries around the globe. In most of these places, it is simply not practical to get good research materials to prepare lessons.

I just ordered two commentaries on James from CBD on Friday.  They are in the mail and will be on my doorstep this afternoon. In many other countries you may not even be able to place an order and if you can, the shipping is astronomical and it could take months to get your books.

Other you leaders simply don’t have the money to buy good resources or don’t know what resources to buy. In this case they go to Google for help and here you are.

My goal is to provide free materials to youth workers so that we can be confident our teens are getting the Bible education they need to become life-long disciples of Jesus Christ.

But, I don’t just intend to provide my own materials. The other day someone filled out a contact form. I tend to get two sorts of questions: troubled teens, and youth leader questions. This form sort of looked like spam, which I normally just delete, but something about it intrigued me. It said this:

Verse by verse, exegetical commentaries in several languages
now online free

1. Video Bible commentaries
2. Audio Bible commentaries
3. Written Bible commentaries
4. Bible Interpretation Seminar (audio & video )

In general, there is little good on the internet when it comes to commentaries. Sure, you can find commentaries by many different pastors, but they are really just manuscripts of their Sunday sermons, which surely have value, but differently.

A good commentary is not concerned with the application of the text or communicating the text; it is simply concerned with the meaning of the text. What does it say. Or even better, what was the original author saying to the original audience.

A commentary is a tool for checking or refining your exegesis. Once you have understood a passage, you want to see if others agree or if they can help you to build your understanding further. A Sunday sermon leaves out all of this technical background.

Anyway, I checked out the website. It’s visually unappealing, but I could generally recommend the Written Bible Commentaries. The author, Bob Utley, is a retired professor from East Texas Baptist University. They audio and video commentaries are probably recordings of his classes and could therefore be very valuable in understanding the Bible as a whole, but probably not so much when you are concentrating on a specific passage. Someone tell me if you disagree.

I’d love it if anyone uses this site to leave some feedback in the comments below. My hope and prayer is that the internet can serve as a venue for uniting Chris’t followers in mind and purpose and that we can sharpen each other, even from thousands of miles away, as iron sharpens iron. May this resource serve you well.

Last summer, we were raising funds for youth camp. The economy has hit a couple families in our church body really hard and they could not afford to pay the $130. I hate for any teens to miss out on camp as it proves to be a long overdo time of spiritual growth and reflection.

We had several fundraisers. I recall one car wash we had. Nearly the whole youth group showed up. We had a bake sale at the same time. Several parents got in to help out too. We raised about $200, as I recall.

This is Mileydi. She is five years old and lives in El Salvador with her father and mother. Her mother and father are both employed as day laborers, bringing in about $120 per month each. That is when her father gets work.

Compassion International is an organization that works to help build communities like Mileydi’s. A monthly donation of $38 would allow CI to make sure that Mileydi is cared for while her parents are at work, provide her with nutritious food, pay for schooling and provide Bible classes for young children in her area.

Instead of sending 2 teens for camp for 4 days, we could have helped Mileydi for three whole months. Honestly, we could probably have done both by simply having one more fundraiser (which the teens love to do anyway!).

My challenge to you: would you talk to your youth group about sponsoring a child like Mileydi? Currently CI has 2035 children around the world they are seeking sponsorship for. If the youth groups of one out of every 200 churches in the US tried to sponsor a child, we would run out before we all got one.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s change the world!

The list of children can be seen here.