Hey Brad, I read this today (Wed) from Vince Antonnucci's blog and thought it applied well here...he's talking about his church's core values:

We have committed to turn the world upside down; therefore we are Guerrilla Lovers.

There are two basic forms of warfare: the “shock and awe” approach where you have the bulk of power and resources so you try to end the battle as quickly as possible by blowing the enemy away; and, “guerrilla warfare” when you are undermanned and resourced, and so you use intelligence, strategy, creativity, and the element of surprise to make repeated, close-proximity, low-intensity ambush attacks until finally your enemy gives up.
For a long time in America, the church has had an, “If you build it they will come,” mentality and has used shock and awe tactics to impress people. We realize that America is increasingly post-Christian and cynical of all things church-related. Therefore we plan on using guerrilla lovefare. We will use intelligence, strategy, creativity, and the element of surprise to build relationships, serve our community, and touch people repeatedly with the love of God.
What we value, who we are, who we are becoming? Guerrilla Lovers.

http://www.vinceantonucci.com/2008/10/strategic...

Love the convo! And I loved the Mark Driscoll talk on confronting wolves!

Dido everything in the previous post. Also would add being "shrewd" means to protect our "sheep" from the "wolves".

Sometimes the wolf is yourself...for example the above post...

Many times it's something that may seem innocent on the surface, but once you dig deeper the truth is revealed. As leader we need to be "shrewd" in detecting these things and not letting them destroy or harm the flock.

It's hard to admit, but not all people have the best motives in mind when they come/or are apart of the ministry. Being "shrewd", not rude, and confronting the "wolves" is necessary but hard.

I think a lot of being shrewd is being aware of our surroundings and the surroundings of the students we're trying to point to Jesus. We're shrewd when we know about the latest technology before they do, or the newest trend or the new issues/temptations affecting them. We're shrewd when we approach them like a friend but offer more than friendship--life as Christ defines it.

I think a lot of youth ministries miss this. For a very literal example, when I think back to high school, I knew so many "youth group" kids who went to lock-ins and made out (interpret that however you want) under the pews all night long. Their leaders were not shrewd, and they missed the things that were really going on in their students' lives. We must be organizing our lives and our ministries in ways that we "see with our eyes and hear with our ears" the truth about the world so that we can relate appropriately when the Spirit leads us.

The Simple Church model is shrewd.
I did not understand why Newspring would stop doing First Wednesday services back when we did; but looking back, it was very shrewd. Those services, while fun and amazing, were not feeding into how out church makes disciples and the best (most shrewd) decision was to discontinue First Wednesday Services.

I'll give a stab at philosophy first:

Shrewd can simply be re-worded as Strategic. It is impossible to be strategic without Wisdom. To have wisdom there must be first and foremost the Fear of the Lord.

In other words, the beginning of being "shrewd" is dealing with the conviction of pleasing God and operating in a way that brings Him glory and exalts His name above everything else we do.

How many of our students love our youth ministry, but don't love Jesus? Probably more than I'd like to admit...In our efforts to be shrewd, strategic, and clever - everything we do must point to "Christ and Him crucified." Otherwise, we're building an earthly kingdom.

Now for some shrewd examples:

God is supernatural, so our shrewdness must begin with the "Super" and then the "natural"

SUPER-:
- intercessory prayer that prepares the soul and spirit to hear the gospel...tears down pre-conceived ideas before they ever enter our services.
- demonstration of power: Paul convinced the Gentiles that Jesus was God because he demonstrated the power of God, rather than just added his name to the list of people who believed in theories. He did more than connect with people on an "emotional" level - I think they call those things "miracles" - go figure!

-Natural:
- speaking in a relevant way that keeps students attention
- using visuals to help students learn and understand better
- connecting students in relational ways so they can speak and discuss, rather than just hear us shout for a couple hours.
- using God-given technology to keep students connected in a culture that is pulling a million different directions to distract students.

Ok...that's it for now. Thanks for helping me think through this Brad. I'm hungry to hear what others think so I can learn, learn, learn!