Youth and College Ministry (part 1)

One of the issues of ministry I (Josh) have been thinking through as of late is the way we as the Church minister to youth and college age students. I have been wondering why we use high school and college ministry as an introductory level job on our way up the pastoral corporate ladder. The truth is, is that the future of our church is being handed the most under-qualified amongst us (being new pastors) respectively. Honestly, I do not want this to look as if I just want to complain, because I am actually going somewhere with this. That is, I want to think that there is a reason we should make careers of high school and college ministry. I am quite passionate about loving the constant new generation of the Church and seeing where their hearts are taking the Church. However, in a time where 15-27 year olds are searching for communal identity, vocational identity, and even more (as we see evident in the rising of post-modern theology) spiritual identity. I think the answer lies in discipleship, the kind that breeds discipleship. This is a great vision for the Church in general, but I think it starts with the youth and young adults. I write this as a 25 year old who constantly battles with his identity in his studies, current job, future vocation, marriage, and especially his relationship with God.

USBC

Hey, Josh here,

So recently I had the honor of getting to participate in the United States Barista Competition at the 2007 USBC. This was quite a growing experience in a way that I had not anticipated. The obvious is how much I learned about coffee. Pulling better shots, tasting things I had never tasted before, and talking about coffee in a vernacular which I am only now beginning to ascertain. However, I did not count on the friends and community I would encounter there. No secrets, just excitement. I had just watched a documentary on the growing and exportation of Ethiopian coffee titled Black Gold before going to the competition and had began thinking about what coffee REALLY is. Is it this amazing beverage that through snobbery and years of shelling out big bucks becomes a beverage of the pretentious, or was it something beyond that. After watching some of the most amazing baristas in the world strut their stuff and learning so much with and from them backstage, I found my answer. Coffee is a drink. However, in the right social context it helps people to sit down, slow down and socialize. It can bring people together of all walks of life and make you think, "Wow, up until this cup of coffee I would have never talked to this person." Furthering that thought, I think that coffee is still just a drink. When compared to something say...like the Gospel, it makes me wonder why it is so hard for me to sit down over that and share my love for Jesus with people. Coffee I can do, but Jesus is a lot harder. But why, coffee is just a drink, Jesus is God and infinately more valuable and important. It makes me think that I am trying to share the Gospel, instead of just letting the Gospel speak for itself... kind of like coffee does. Any thoughts?
-josh

Welcome to our blog

Hey y'all, thanks for checking out our blog. We are hoping to use this blog to chat about what is going on in our world out here in Pasadena, CA. We seem to have a lot of crazy and sometimes slightly amazing conversations, and we wanted to share them with you and hear what you have to say. On a personal note, I am coming down off a crazy time at the United States Barista Competition, so I will probably be writing on that soon... I think. We'll see. So anyways, thanks for listening, here's Becs.
-josh

Hello everyone! Thanks for looking at our blog. My thoughts right now revolve around how to teach piano to 4 year olds and how to in gerneral motivate my students. Josh and I are reading through the Qu'ran for our Islam class and have insteresting conversations on what ministry to muslims looks like. It has been challenging! We'll talk more about that later....