Top 40

I'll be doing a six city tour of Australia this summer, with a stop in New Zealand to teach the basic Principles of Faith Inkubation. They asked for my ministry philosophy, so I threw together a Top 40. Here's mine:

1. You've got to open the kid before you open the book.
2. Good teaching is 1/4 preparation and 3/4 theater.
3. If you don't plan the drama, comedy, and creative interruptions in your classroom, the kids will plan them for you.
4. True education is more "draw out" and less "cram in!"
5. It's a sin to bore a kid with the Gospel of Jesus.
6. Everything we do is built on a three-legged stool of integrated learning, service and fellowship
7. They'll never care how much you know until they know how much you care.
8. No adult should be responsible for more than six kids at a time (Jesus had a small group of 12, and evidently that was one too many)
9. Everything we do should include all of the senses (including the sense of humor)
10. Youth don't need another program. They're programmed out. What they need is intimacy, adults who care, and friends who stick with them through thick and thin.
11. No adult (or kid, for that matter) should be talking more than 7 1/2 minutes without a creative interruption to supplement what they're saying and look at it in another way
12. Faith stories of real people from the Christian community - especially young people - are worth more than any curriculum you'll ever buy
13. You must create a learning organization that asks "What's working? What's not working? How do we make this better and more effective" after every event
14. You must build and nurture a team of "little Christs" to care for the kids
15. 7/8 of your youth program, Christian ed program, prayer ministry, servant projects, Bible Study, and fellowship ministries should happen off site... every night in every home.
16. Jesus taught adults and BLESSED kids (Sorry Harry Wendt!)
17. To do more ministry more effectively with more kids more often... you need more help.
18. The most committed and qualified people you'll ever find to do youth ministry are PARENTS. (They'd die for their kids. You can't hire that out!)
19. 3/4 of your youth ministry must be committed to helping parents DO and BE who and what God once called them to dp and be when they first held their child in their arms
20. It's high time the church give the parents back to their kids
21. Sunday School was created 225 years ago for spiritual orphans and street kids. Today the system that was set up to help these spiritual orphans is often creating them.
22. 3/4 of your youth budget should be spent on adults (nurturing the nurturers, mentoring the mentors, guiding the guides, shepherding the shepherds)
23. FUN is not a four letter word
24. The Book of Acts would not have ended the way it did if Jesus hadn't gone out fishing with his disciples from time to time
25. You never really know something until you teach it. So get kids and parents teaching!
26. You never pay attention until you're put in charge. So pu them in charge!
27. The faster you can get someone you've just taught up and teaching themselves, the faster they'll learn and own their learning.
28. If your memory work is WORK, you aren't using your whole brain
29. Music, drama, art, and motion are the most powerful whole brain tools you have to teach.
30. The human ear can process 10,000 bits per second. The human eye can process 7 billion. Therefore, if you aren't teaching with visuals, you're a lousy steward!
31. A missionary who doesn't speak the language of the culture will never reach the people.
32. Music, games, visuals, tech and friendships ARE the language of youth.
33. You can argue theology and philosophy until you're blue in the face, but you can't argue love
34. The most effective brain-based learning environments employ 5% preview, 45% information aquision, 45% small group interaction and engagement, and 5% review
35. Youth ministry must be re-defined as youth DOING ministry rather than youth doing programs
36. Family minisry must be re-defined as families DOING ministry rather than families doing programs
37. The mainline church that doesn't want to be a flatline church 20 years from today will need to look more like the second chapter of Acts and less like an institution
38. The church is the last truly intergenerational community left for most kids today
39. Every age has gifts we need, and every age has needs we must gift
40. The church must focus on keeping families together in a world that can tear them apart

How's that for starters?

Comments

[Amy Kippen]

That, my friend, is all truth. I'm gonna pass it on to all my partners in ministry. See you on Saturday!