God has given me a conviction.  That conviction is to serve the Church.  That service can flesh itself out in multiple ways, but today i want to speak to a very specific conviction that God has given me as a Student Pastor.

Before i tell you the details of  my conviction, i need to set it up with 2 words — LECTURE & LAB.

All my college readers know exactly what these 2 words describe, many of their classes require BOTH in order to pass.

The LECTURE is where students receive the principles that make up their course of study.

The LAB is the safe environment where students practice those principles…. it’s called EXPERIMENTATION.

Now back to my conviction —

• I am convicted & convinced that one of the major ways that  student ministries can impact the local church is through  SERVICE.

• I am convicted & convinced that student ministry teams can accomplish that by providing a “LABORATORY” for Experimentation.

As a student pastor i must embrace the fact that Right Theology will never change — BUT —- Methodology will ALWAYS CHANGE.

One of the observations that I have made in my time as a student pastor is that students are receptive to change — infact some prefer it —-

– I BELIEVE STUDENT PASTORS MUST EMBRACE AND HARNESS THIS FACT —

I thank Jesus i work @ a church and in a culture where i am given the freedom to take risks… i am given the freedom to fail…

— That freedom is a tool that MUST BE UTILIZED —

We must take advantage of our LABORATORIES OF EXPERIMENTATION.

• We Experiment with Worship Style —

• We Experiment with Environments —

• We Experiment with Groups —

• We Experiment with Technology —

• We Experiment with Programming —

• We Experiment…
  

Youth Workers/Student Pastors/Senior Pastors/Church Leaders    —-   Do you recognize the POTENTIAL that exists in your student ministry?  Do you recognize the LABORATORY it can be or become for your churches current obstacles?

I have to remind myself daily that my fallen nature wants to daily confine the vastness of God to a framework that i can deal with…. a box, if you will.

I believe it was Descartes who said,  “Humanity was created in the image of God, and ever since humanity has been returning the favor.”

John 3:30 tells us that “HE MUST INCREASE, BUT I MUST DECREASE.”

In light of this Truth — I have found major benefit in continually asking God to stretch my mind’s eye in it’s comprehension of HIM — That is to say, i ask God to knock the walls down that i continually try to define Him by.

In our current series @ Fuse* entitled “Less And Less” we utilized this creative collaboration from Joshua and Ben to stretch students & leaders as to how they perceive God.  We know that as we see God for who He Truly is, our natural response is humility.

We literally MUST BECOME LESS AND LESS in light of HIS GREATNESS:

Momentum is a big deal in the church.  Its a truth i had never really thought about until i was introduced to the idea by Perry and the NewSpring team.  Partnering with the momentum has been a huge success for Fuse* as we look back over our history.

Here’s a sample of what i mean:

• FACT: We know that our attendance is going to spike every year as students go back to school in the fall, and again as they come back from Christmas break for the new year.

• FACT: We want to take advantage of these spikes in attendance by pulling out all the stops twice a year.

• FACT: Our budget planning reflects this knowlege — We allocate a little more $$Green$$ to engaging students during these peak seasons.

• FACT: We amp up our set design & we theme out our building.

GOAL:  This past series was called “Make War”  — We wanted students to enter into a dialogue about war WAY before they took a seat in the auditorium.  We wanted students to remember that we have been called to make war for the entirety of our lives, not just the entirety of our teaching series.