Fall Kick-Off
Zach Van Dyke August 10 2010 - 2 Comments
- I won’t be able to see what God is doing through me.
- I will feel alone in ministry. No one will have my back.
- I will be overworked.
- I will feel like I don’t work hard enough or good enough or don’t know how to design a ministry that reaches enough students.
- I will feel guilty about any successes.
- I will be kept from being me to the fullest and being used to the fullest for the Kingdom.
- I will be tired.
- I will resent my family.
- I will begin looking for an outlet to escape feeling bad.
- I won’t be noticed.
Most youth pastors probably make a list of goals at the start of each new ministry year. Some of my previous year’s goals have included but aren’t limited to…
- I will capitalize on middle school boys’ desire to be noticed by middle school girls by providing more extreme opportunities for them to eat things which ought not be eaten.
- I will mask my real age with skinny jeans, a way too tight Louie Giglio inspired T-shirt, and a faux-hawk. Maybe even get a wrist tattoo that says something like “Christ’s Warrior” in a hip foreign language like Chinese or Greek or Spanish.
- I will concoct outrageous events with 1,000 hot wings and a chocolate slip-&-slide (if you can get away with the total inappropriateness of that one…it is a sure way to attract teenage boys to your ministry).
- I will be the coolest adult any teenager has ever met…ever.
- I will lead 10 teenagers to Jesus…at the very first youth group meeting.
This ministry year I instead decided to make a list of all my anxieties and fears. And as I look over these two seemingly different lists, I can’t help but notice the idolatry of my heart equally exposed.
Rebecca Pippert observes in her book Out of the Saltshaker and into the World:
Whatever controls us is our lord. The person who seeks power is controlled by power. The person who seeks acceptance is controlled by the people he or she wants to please. We do not control ourselves. We are controlled by the lord of our life.
At the start of this ministry year, let me encourage you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, expose your worst nightmares regarding your ministry to Jesus. Take them to the cross.
- Jesus will work through me and He will reveal to me how He is working.
- Jesus is my ministry and He has my back.
- Jesus is my rest.
- Jesus is designing a specific ministry through me that is reaching His students.
- Jesus has already succeeded on my behalf.
- Jesus called me uniquely for His Kingdom purposes.
- Jesus is my rest.
- Jesus loves my family more then I do and has given me to them for my sake and theirs.
- Jesus is my rest.
- Jesus chose me.
So glad it’s all about grace.
Zach
I might go UFC on your a**!
Zach Van Dyke June 10 2010 - 2 Comments
Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.
Before you were born, I set you apart.
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.
Jeremiah 1:5
If you’re a pastor (or especially a youth pastor), do these words make you want to vomit?
Really, God?! You appointed me for this? You intended for this to be my life? This is what it means to be set apart? Really?!
Someone recently told me, “You get paid to do your devotions. You get paid to pursue deep relationships. You get paid to be at church on Sunday morning.”
And then with a chuckle that made me miss Janice from Friends, concluded, “Essentially, you’re getting paid to do what I’m asked to do in my spare time.”
I resent my “calling.”
If one more person makes a joke about me only working on Sundays, I might go UFC on his a**! (more…)
“I can’t fix this and I don’t have the energy to try”
Zach Van Dyke February 15 2010 - 10 Comments
It was late in the evening. I had worked a 14-hour day. We just returned home from a bible study I was leading and I was bracing myself on the other side of the counter looking in at my frustrated wife standing in the middle of the kitchen when it hit me – we don’t have a good marriage.
It was a debilitating epiphany.
Kelly was my girlfriend in 5th grade. I remember thinking how beautiful she was (still is). She had hair that looked like curly fries (still does). We had even gotten in trouble for kissing on the playground. Even though I didn’t grow hair in certain areas until I was in High School, I was still an aggressive 10-year-old. We dated in High School. Married in college. Now eight years and three kids later we stood across from each other confused, unable to communicate and pretty much depleted.
How did this happen? (more…)
My First Time
Zach Van Dyke January 11 2010 - 12 Comments
When it comes to writing, I often procrastinate until the last possible moment. Whenever I get an email from Cathy reminding me that my next article for PoopedPastors.com is due, I usually decide it’s time to rearrange the books in my office, cut my toenails, and catch up on my television watching…there always seems to be an episode of Law and Order: SVU on some channel that cannot be missed.
This time when I received the email, I decided I had been negligent about my Facebook correspondence and needed to spend some time “catching up.” While feverishly “liking” people’s statuses, I came across a status my wife had posted on December 26, 2009 at 11:47pm.
Kelly Van Dyke sitting in the front row of an empty sanctuary listening to Zach preach!!!
After spending a few moments thanking God for giving me a wife that would listen to me practice my first sermon into the wee hours of the night, a thought crossed my mind that could lengthen my procrastination.
I know Kelly journals. Maybe she would allow me to post her thoughts about that first sermon for this week’s article. (more…)
He Knows How You Feel
Zach Van Dyke December 08 2009 - 3 Comments
“I know how you feel.” (Don’t say it. Just don’t say it.)
As I was driving to the home of a Ray and Trish and their 5 kids – Daniel, Andrew, Patrick, Caroline and Stephen – four of whom are or have been part of my student ministry, I kept repeating to myself: “I know how you feel.” (Don’t say it. Just don’t say it.)
Pulling up to the home, I was overwhelmed by the number of people that had already gathered in their front yard. People were crying and embracing, walking around stunned. I immediately walked over to a group of students who looked like they had all taken a slam to the gut by a 2-by-4. It had only been 30 minutes since Trish and her 5 kids learned that their husband and dad, who had been missing for the past 24 hours, had taken his own life in a wooded part of their neighborhood. (more…)
Heroes/Heretics
Zach Van Dyke October 15 2009 - 7 Comments
- hero – [n.] anyone noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially who have risked or sacrificed his or her life.
- heretic – [n.] anyone who does not conform to an established attitude, doctrine, or principle.
So the other day I wrote that Kay Arthur is teaching heresy on my facebook page.
Now before you post a comment or write KeyLife…
I, Zachary David Van Dyke, am in no way stating in this blog that Kay Arthur is teaching heresy and I will not be using this platform to comment on Kay Arthur and what she teaches.
And I know she has pointed many people to Jesus…every single one of my mom’s friends who are on facebook let me know…and yes, I have read all 40-plus comments that have been posted on my facebook wall about the great, life-changing precepts of Kay Arthur. She is a hero to many.
But this got me thinking…why does it bother us when someone else thinks one of our teachers, leaders or heroes says something that is wrong or false or heresy?
I decided to do a google search that included the name “Steve Brown” and the word “heresy.” (more…)
Summer Silence
Zach Van Dyke August 31 2009 - 14 Comments
I was working on a cute little article about summer and how as an adult it doesn’t mean what it did as a kid and how as a youth pastor it means non-stop – make sure the fridge is stocked with Red Bull…but then I heard from Him.
Out of the three summers I have been a youth pastor, this by far has been my most successful with the highest numbers and greatest excitement among students. Camp was amazing. Participation in service projects has been phenomenal. Students have taken initiative in speaking the Gospel into each others’ lives.
This has been a hard summer for me. Much harder than the past two. (more…)
Cannabis Confession and Construction Contemplation
Zach Van Dyke April 22 2009 - 4 Comments
I really want to smoke weed.
I’ve never once in my 28 years had the slightest desire to smoke weed…until now.
Why now? Why is there an inescapable burning in the bowels of my being to smoke weed?
Because I’m a youth pastor.
Seriously, the reason I want to smoke weed IS because I am a youth pastor. I have racked my brain for weeks trying to uncover where this unmentionable desire (more…)
