Brent Parsley's Blog

The Heartwork:Uganda Timeline

This was perhaps THE highlight of 2008 and certainly ranks among the top 5 ministry experiences for me in my 33 years thus far. I've written a little bit about it previously, but I wanted to share the timeline and story with a little more detail. We recently showed this at _tag to update students and to celebrate what God is doing through them. I followed up on the video with pics and stories of each of the 3 Orphan Homes. It was such a great night. Hope it's an encouragement to you.

Give young people something missional. Give them something to do. Show them something that matters. Present a Jesus type challenge. They will rise to meet it. I've watched it over and over.

Hope you dig the video.

A little (and I mean, very little) reflection on Baptism.

This week at _tag we're planning on Baptizing those who want to make a profession of their faith. This is great physical representation of a spiritual reality of young men and young women making Jesus Lord of every part of their lives. We're really looking forward to it.

If you want to join in make sure you grab a permission slip, get it signed, and bring it with you to Room 162 at 6:30. We'll get you prepped and ready.

In the meantime, listen to Jared's latest Weblog on Baptism. That Jared is a Weblogging maniac.

Heartwork: Uganda is Here and it is Happening.

Last year around this time a great group of people I know called _tag embarked on a fantastic journey. It was a journey into true Christianity. It was the kind of journey that God calls "pure and faultless". The directions can be found in James 1:27. They're not too difficult. They are simply, to "look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world." We had the directions so we started the journey.

Our travel partners ended up being an organization called World Orphans and an awesome guy named Kirby. Our road led us to Uganda and Kenya to build 4 Orphan Homes for some incredible children on the other side of the planet.

Over the course of 2 month, that's only 8 weeks, a group of junior high kids and high school students freely gave over $67,000 dollars to this way of life. That amount was matched by a local business for a total of over $127,000 dollars.

That journey is continuing today. We received word this week that two of those four homes are now complete and the third is nearing completion. In fact, one of those homes already has eight young girls living there in safety.

There will be more to come on this. But in the meantime, in a season when circumstances nationally and locally are pretty challenging, and it seems sometimes like Jesus can be hard to find, I've seen Him. He's doing the same things He's always done. He's asking us to do the same. The directions are there. Let's take the journey with Him. It's time to go.

Rise to the Challenge

There's no doubt that Student Ministry can be challenging at times. It will challenge your body with lack of sleep, it will challenge your self-esteem with comments about how "uncool" you can be from time to time, and it will challenge your intellect and your spirit with big questions about a life lived wholeheartedly for Jesus.

I had an interesting conversation with one of our team last night about this very idea. She was feeling challenged by the Senior Girls in her Connect Group. They are dealing with all the serious issues of life and carrying around some baggage from decisions they have made as well as from decisions others around them have made. As they fight through it all, they are responding with strength and grace as they trust God to walk them through. All this resulted in this member of our team asking the question, "How do I rise to the challenge when they are challenging me so much? And what do I say to help them when I don't seem to have the answers?"

Those questions reminded me of a big idea for Student Ministry.

Student Ministry is primarily about modeling.

My sermons aren't what they remember (shocking, I know) and your devos aren't necessarily what they remember (though I know they are full of earth shattering revelation). They remember your life. They remember sitting around coffee shops talking about Jesus. They remember the crazy, fun things you guys all did together and then told them, "Don't tell Pastor Brent how crazy that was!" They remember watching you live your life wholeheartedly for God. That means you don't have to worry about being intellectually deep and insightful every moment you are with them. Don't misunderstand. You do need to be ready to have some of the answers, you do need to be consistent in your quiet time so you can talk big ideas with them from a Biblical worldview, and you do need to work through those big conversations about life when they arise.

But, more than that, you need to show them how to live strong for Jesus in every area of life every day. They'll remember that more than anything. So let me recommend a few things as you journey through your ministry today.

Challenge them to fast regularly with you.

Challenge them to read through a book of the Bible with you.

Challenge them to pray every day.

Challenge them to worship with you during services.

Challenge them to write down a Life Mission Statement and share it together.

Challenge them to read a great book with you.

Challenge them to chuck the cell phone, ipod, computer, and TV for a weekend

Challenge them to adopt a child from Compassion International.

Challenge them to research and pray for a specific country this month. 

Challenges like these don't require you any prep time and they don't require you to have the answers.

They require you to do them yourself, stay disciplined, hold one another accountable, and share what God is doing as you do them together.

Don't fall into the trap of being the "all-knowing Youth Leader". That's too much pressure. Challenge them to genuinely live their lives for Jesus like you live your life for Him. You'll find that both you and the students you lead will rise to the challenges together. And God will do some great things.

Thank you for what you do.

Brent

Welcome to the _tag Leader Blog

Hello Team,

Let me first say how incredibly grateful I am for every one of you and your faithfulness to the Kingdom of God and to _tag students. This year has launched with a great deal of anticipation and I am thrilled about the direction we are headed. Discipleship is strong and I sense a great hunger and excitement in the majority of our students. You are going to have a great year with fruit that remains so look forward to it.

One of the many things I am looking forward to this year is connecting with one another through this _tag Leader Blog. This will be THE place for you to get the latest _tag information, some ministry training, and connection with all that's happening here. So bookmark this page or subscribe to the Feed (if you're savvy) and we'll begin this journey together. This will be one more place for you to get plugged in to _tag Student Ministries. We'll be updating every other week by Thursday at 5pm so you can know when new info will be coming out of the office. I hope this will be a helpful ministry tool that you will take advantage of.

And don't forget our other Leadership Connection opportunities. We meet together each Wednesday at 6:15pm before _tag in the _tag Chapel, and we also have the _tag Leadercast on iTunes.
Just search and you'll get there.

As we continue into this year renewing friendships with _tag family members and building new friendships with new students, here are just a few things to get you started. We like to call them the
4 Big Questions:

1. What's God showing you from His Word?
This is a great question because it will give you insight into the life of a student. If they have some things to discuss, you can talk about that with them knowing that they are reading the Word and actively listening to the Lord. If they have nothing to say, you can encourage them in their devotion to the Lord and talk about the great benefits of that relationship in your life.

2. How can I be a friend to you this week?
This will provide an open door for you to connect. Most likely, they'll look back at you and say, "I have no idea." Don't worry about that. Just let them know that you are available. If they give you an answer, go for it and provide an answer to prayer for them that week.

3. Where is life beating you up?
A question like this will open up doors for you to help them through some of the rough stuff of life that they are facing. Don't push hard on a question like this. It may just take some time. But if they talk with you about a struggle they are in, you will have great opportunity to journey through that together.

4. What's one thing I can pray for you about this week?
Don't ask for a list. Ask for one thing. Then, be faithful to pray with them there in the moment and throughout that week.

Now, a word of caution...
These are strong questions that can open or shut doors of trust for you. So if you're going to ask the question, be prepared to follow up and to do it well. It would be better for you not to ask than to ask and not follow up.

So, take these 4 questions and try one out this week on a student that you have met recently. I believe God will use it to open great doors of ministry for you down the road.

Again, thanks for what you do.
This is going to be such an incredible year.

Until next time,

Brent

Simple simplicity

Simplicity. In my world filled with chaos and complexity, I'm certainly looking to see more of this elusive little idea. For the past 8 years I've filled my schedule and calendar with all kinds of ideas and meetings. Seen many great things through those processes, but I'm ready for some things to change. I want to be more effective. I want to make disciples. I want to do it well.

I went out with Jared (jr high pastor / bow hunter aficionado) the other day. We actually went to discuss one or two things happening in our jr high ministry. We ended up asking and answering some tough and unexpected questions in the 20 minutes that followed. Then, for the next three hours we discussed the implications of all the answers we just found to those questions. We found that by simplifying our lives and ministry we could be much more targeted and intentional in making disciples. It was exhilarating! It seemed as if God might be up to something. I met 2 days later with Glenn (worship guy / management guru / chicken ala king chef) to discuss some of the ideas. Everything lined up perfectly with what God had been showing him and the team he works with about their ministry. The idea? Keep it Simple.

I'm reading a book called "Simple Church" by Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger. It's rockin me a bit. I think God's  up to something.  Now, I realize that I've said quite a bit here without saying much of anything. Well, 1. I'm new to the blog world so I'm gonna need some practice. And 2. I'm not ready to unleash some of the stuff I'm working on.

So, for now, if you're reading this. Thanks. Not sure why you did, but that's awfully nice of you.

There's "simply" more to come...