Last week I had the honor and privilege to teach a class at the Revival Youth Minister's Retreat at Graymere Church of Christ in Columbia, Tenneessee. I got to talk to some youth ministers and give them the exact same talk that was on the Ministry Bits podcast this week. I got some great insight from those guys just talking with them about the subject of internet safety and digital parenting and how we can help parents be on top of it better. 

One thing that stuck out to me (that I actually wrote down because it was so good) was what Jon Morris said during the class: 

"If you're telling me that 60% of the internet is porn, then we as Christians and Christian parents need to start being radical and intentional with this whole internet safety thing."

Radical and intentional.

Two things I think that we as Christian parents have not been. 

We need to be radical in our thinking and intentional with our actions regarding our kids' safety on the internet. We need to be those parents who are relentless on keeping our kids safe and not apologize for doing it. We need to make sure that we don't let other parents influence our decisions to do these radical things. Protecting our children from these dangers and letting the internet be a tool for communication, rather than a method of destruction. 

I've gotten a great response to the podcast yesterday. This is a huge need for our parents and I'm glad to be able to help, even if just a tiny bit. Take a listen to episode 008 and let me know what you think. 

And then be radical and intentional with your own kids. 

MTV has largely been about sex since its beginning, and Miley's performance was almost a brilliant parody. It was a beautiful young woman, very scantily-clad, parading in front of millions, and it was... well, repulsive.

MTV, you're doing the near impossible. You're making sexuality seem boring.

Excellent article by Brant over at Air1.  

Disclaimer: I am one of the fortunate youth ministers to be able to work with a great staff and wonderful elders who respect our job titles and let us focus on what we were hired and trained to do. So this rant isn't about me, but rather what I've observed and continue to observe churches doing to discourage and burn out youth ministers.  

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Look, churches. Elderships. Leaderships. PLEASE listen. 

I'm so sick of seeing friends drop out of ministry. Good friends who were good ministers who were doing God's work to help young people and their parents get to heaven and they drop out of ministry just because they can't take any more bellyaching. Goodness. Youth Ministers are people too. We're people who make mistakes and have families and hobbies and go on vacations (when we can afford it and we're not paying off students loans). We have feelings too, so stop making out like we don't by talking behind our backs or better yet, publicly speaking out against us.  

Who did you hire? A youth minister or a superhero? We can only do so much. We make half what pulpit ministers make and do the same amount of more, maybe more in the summer. We do the same amount of the work because you're constantly piling stuff on for us to do. We're not just the youth minister, we're the education director, tech support, website administrator, song leader, part-time "associate" minister, children's program director, class teacher on Sundays and Wednesdays, VBS coordinator, Summer Camp coordinator, DayCamp coordinator, and a couple of other things that we forgot about because we're trying to get all the other stuff done. So who did you hire and why don't you let me do what I was trained to do, and what I'm best at instead of piling everything up on me until I quit? 

And another thing: I'm not the savior of your kids, Jesus is. I'm not the leader of your children's lives, their parents are. I can only, at most, be a guide. I can teach kids thoughtful lessons that I spend hours preparing. I can plan fun events and and do fun things with them and magnify Christ in those things. I can have discussions with parents and teens about how to work through problems. 

What I can't do is everything. I can't teach on Sunday morning, preach that same morning, do a devotional for the older people that Sunday afternoon, lead singing that Sunday night and do a devotional for the kids afterwards. I am not Carl Lewis. I cannot do everything. And when you try to put everything on me, it's just going to burn me out and make me resent ministry, and maybe even the church.  

Elders, Leaders, parents: LISTEN. When you are looking to hire me, do not look at me as your workhorse, look at me as your partner to help your kids get to heaven. Treat me as a person, not a robot. 

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