Lead Like Joshua

I have been reading through the book of Joshua in the mornings.  Lots of good leadership examples in the life of Joshua.
This is from my journal today:
Joshua 24

Joshua gathers the tribes and their leaders and reminds them of what God has done for them. From bringing Abraham out from worshipping other gods to delivering them from Egypt. Joshua reminded them of how God:
>established them as his children
>cared for them
>protected them
>provided for them


God has established me as his child.  God has cared for me, protected me and provided for me.

In this chapter is my favorite line from Joshua.
Verse 15 "...Choose today who you will serve"

The choice is before Israel to choose to serve the gods from their ancestor, Abraham's, land. The choice to serve the gods of Egypt. The choice to serve the gods of the displaced Canaanites in the promised land. The choice to serve the one and only, true and living, God.
They chose to serve God.

I have a choice to make as well.  Who will I serve? 

My other favorite line from Joshua is also in this chapter.
"But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord."
Joshua was not only a leader of a nation but he was a leader in his home and family. His family didn't get the option to choose. Joshua pretty much said, "this is how it's going to be in my family."

Leaders in the church must first be leaders in the home.

What is your choice? Who will you serve?

The Return on Your Investment

In youth ministry it is so easy to get discouraged when you look at a group of students who, for the most part, are spiritually stagnant. What do you do?

1. Go to the Word - are we starting with the Bible as our foundation to youth ministry?
2. Pray - Pray that your heart is right where it needs to be. Pray that students get a passion for Christ like they have never had before.
3. Evaluate - are we being effective in students lives?
4. Improve - find the areas of the ministry that need work and work on improvement.
5. Continue - continue to invest your time and resources in to their lives. Continue to reach out to students who don’t know Christ.
6. Realize - realize that all we can do if we are doing the first 4 is to continue to put the buffet our there. The students have to decide for themselves to pick up the plates, load it with food and starting eating. (somehow I feel compelled to use food as an illustration) Realize that we can’t force students to grow spiritually, it is a choice that they must make for themselves. Realize that not every students will be a Billy Graham. Realize that the students are a mirror reflection of the adults in your church.

Youth Ministry is like financial investment, sometimes you don’t see the return for several years.

This morning I stopped in a local coffee shop for a cup of the Tortuga Lie blend. I walked in and there was a young man standing there that looked familiar. It clicked for both of us at the same time. He said, “Andy right? From Nags Head Church?” I said, “Yep! And you are *Ted.” (thankfully God helped me to remember his name). Ted was no spiritual champion in high school. I noticed Ted had on a t-shirt that was the face of Jesus on superman’s body. I also noticed that Ted had grown a foot and a half. Then it happened!

The Return on the Investment.

“Ted” began talking about his relationship with God. “I strayed during my high school years and wasn’t in a good relationship with God. Now that I’ve graduated I’ve stepped back and taken a look at where I’m at. I’m going to church. I’m staying around here and taking classes at the community college until I figure out what the Lord wants me to do.” I didn’t even have to ask probing questions he just started sharing his story.

Boom! Cha-Ching!! That was the pay off!



“Ted” has no idea the encouragement that he was to me this morning. He has no idea the tears of joy our conversation has brought on me as I sit in my office and think about our “by chance” meeting at the coffee shop this morning.

Here is the deal. Over the past 20 years of working with students I have seen some go on to really be productive in their relationship with God. I have seen many, many more fall by the wayside. There are many who I have no clue at this point how their life has turned out or will turn out. You see change can happen when they are 18, 28 or 48, we don’t know when the investment will “kick in” and pay off.
BUT if “Ted” were the only one to have been impacted by our church’s youth ministry in the past 11 years (and he’s not) then the investment of the past 11 years of the youth ministry team of our church was well worth it.

SO . . . . keep investing!

Consumerism Starts Young

(I haven't posted in a long time)

This Saturday night we are showing a movie, having a little "movie night" with the students. The movie is a great film about a girl who goes through a terrible tragedy and turns that tragedy into an opportunity to share the love of Jesus Christ and the power of God with others. We took the students to see it when it was released in the theaters.

Last night after middle school youth group a young lady walked up and asked, "Why are you showing a movie we have already seen?". Her attitude was one of "why should I watch this when I've seen it already?". Great question.

At that point I was reminded of two things:

1. Consumerism ("it's about me") in the church starts young. We (the adults) do everything for the kids from the time they are little toddlers all the way up through high school rather than teaching them to "do" for themselves. We minister to them constantly and consistently rather than train them to minister to each other. The result is we produce the adults that we have all encountered (and have been that person at times) in the church that thinks church is for them and about them, "Cater to my needs. Feed me. Deal with my problems". The person who doesn't reach out and minister to others in any way shape or form or roll up their sleeves and get involved in ministry themselves.

2. I failed. I failed to communicate the "vision" of the event. Every time we do an event that has a purpose (which we should have a purpose every time) and that purpose needs to be communicated.

The purpose of showing this great movie that we have seen already is not for our students entertainment (they will enjoy it) but for out students to have an opportunity to bring a friend to see a movie about a girl with a strong Christian testimony. I guess, in a way it is, for our students. It's for our students to give them an opportunity to open up conversation with their friends about Jesus Christ.

So my lessons learned (or reminded of) at middle school youth last night:
1. Train students to serve. The servant's attitude will impact the rest of their life and the church.
2. Communicate vision over and over and over and over.

When a Plan Doesn’t Come Together

I hate it when plan doesn’t come together. How about you?

This month the plan was to launch a series on moving from shallow faith to deep faith. The whole idea is that I’m responsible for my spiritual growth. We want to give students the tools necessary to grow in their faith, the spiritual habits they need to form in their lives today.

Great series. Great plan. I failed!

I failed to look at the calendar.
Here is what I am in the middle of now at the very beginning and it didn’t hit me until Sunday night:

Sunday, May 1 – The end of our students’ spring break. So we had the break to compete with and some incredibly awesome beach weather.

Sunday, May 8 – Mother’s Day. We always give our team “off” that day to celebrate Mother’s Day with their family. We can’t change Mother’s Day now can we?

Sunday, May 15 – We have youth group

Sunday, May 22 – Church Picnic! We also take off from youth group for the church picnic. In the past the picnic has been on Memorial Day weekend. I assumed (you know what happens) that this year it would be the same. We may punt and do youth group at the park at the end of the picnic.

Sunday, May 29 – Memorial Day weekend. You know that will take a bite out of attendance.

It’s hard to do a series with a bunch of breaks or obstacles in the middle of it. The moral of the story is to look at the calendar and not just the dates but the activities and events going on and around those dates. Been doing this a long time and should have known better. Sometimes driving in cruise control is dangerous isn’t it?

So we will make the best of it. I’m planning on (if this plan comes together):

1. Utilizing Facebook to send students their daily scripture readings for each week whether we meet or not.
2. Hopefully doing youth group at the picnic. Could be lots of fun.
3. Doing something special on Memorial Day weekend as an added “draw”.
4. Updating Parents as usual in our weekly e-mail update with some added info from our lessons so perhaps they can work some of the verses into their daily Bible reading with their kids.
   
   

What do you do when a plan doesn’t come together?

Last Night At Contagious

Wow! The weather was awesome last night. The majority of students were out in the front yard playing Polish and Cornhole. Inside I saw a mean game of skip bo happening (they seemed to be making up their own rules) and also bananagrams. Some simply sat on the sidewalk and chatted during hang time. It's great to see students and their youth leaders playing games together and engaging in conversation.

Last week we went and watched Soul Surfer. NHC youth and parents were the large majority of the crowd at the viewing. I would suggest youth ministers and parents take their kids to see this film.

We followed up Soul Surfer last night with Heart of a Soul Surfer a video made by Bethany and her family and friends several years ago. I like this video because students get to hear straight from Bethany about how God is using her life. One thing that stands out to me is that before the shark attack Bethany was asking God to use her life. An amazing perspective from a 13 year old girl.

After the video the students went to their new PODs (now age divided. Seniors should be thrilled to have their own POD) . In the PODs they discussed Bethany's life and the scriptures in she used in the video. I ended the evening by telling students that a shark doesn't have to take your arm in order to be used by God. God has placed you where you are and around who you are around to have an impact on their lives.

This coming Sunday Contagious takes a break so students and the YM team can spend Easter Sunday with their families. We come back together the following week to spend a few weeks hitting hard the habits we need as believers in our lives to grow spiritually. We can provide the resources and the encouragement to the students but ultimately it is their passion and desire to grow in Christ. It is a choice they must make.

Church Hopping Starts Young

Recently while watching a Simply Youth Ministry podcast, episode 156, the question came up concerning students who attend multiple youth groups and multiple Bible studies at multiple churches. What is the affect of a student who “Just wants more of Jesus and more Bible knowledge”? This podcast got me to doing some thinking.

Church hopping seems to be almost a part of the culture in our community among the adults. Let’s go where the latest and greatest thing is happening, where the band is rocking, where the “spirit” is “present”, where I “feel” the presence, where I can be more of a power broker (of course no one would admit to that one), where the pastor won’t offend me.

I think first their needs to be an understanding of the local church. The church (body of Christ) globally functions through the local church. This is what read in the New Testament in Acts and the letters from Paul. The body of Christ is made up of individual believers connected in a local church. (Acts 2:47)

Here are some of my thoughts:

>Believers who float from church to church as kids learn a habit that is hard to break as an adult

>Students are being invested into, discipled by adult leaders at multiple churches. This might sound good in theory but this means that if one student is getting invested in by several churches that there are students who are not being discipled at all because we get spread thin. We have roughly 182 that our local churches in our community are reaching.

>When we say it’s “about the kingdom” we forget that the kingdom is supposed to grow, not by sharing sheep but by producing new sheep, new followers of Christ. We have roughly 2,416 in our community who need to be reached.

>God places you in the body where he wants you. (1 Corinthians 12:18) If you are supposed to be the “eye” in that church’s youth group you will not be effective trying to the be the “nose” in our church’s youth group.

>The pool for student leaders becomes a very shallow pool. Students with leadership potential become spread too thin. They become mediocre in a few youth groups rather than excelling and leading with excellence in one.

>Discipleship isn’t just about Bible study and knowledge. Discipleship is learning to be like Christ. Jesus Christ was a servant. Students need to learn to roll up their sleeves and serve God the way he has shaped them in the body where he has placed them.

>Students don’t learn a healthy and proper view of spiritual leadership and interferes with accountability of the youth leader. Hebrews 13:17

I recall a letter I received a while back from a youth pastor. He was planning a big youth event and wanted to invite the other youth groups in the region to attend. He went on to explain how God’s hand was on their youth ministry because of their explosive growth that he could not explain. (Does that mean that God’s hand isn’t on ours?) I dismissed the invite because I knew of many students who were attending his church’s youth group gathering were from several other church youth groups. I wouldn’t call borrowing other churches’ students “growth”. (In cattle country that’s called poaching)

When we have events I tell our students to not invite other students who are part of another church. Am I trying to form a clique? Not at all. I’m attempting to teach students their role in reaching their friends who don’t have a relationship with Christ or are not plugged into a local church. There are plenty of students out there waiting for someone to reach out to them with the love of Christ.

I recently heard a youth leader express the opinion that it’s good for students to be involved in multiple youth groups because it keeps them busy and out of trouble. I think what keeps a student out of trouble is a vibrant, growing relationship with the Lord. When we take on the “spiritual cruise director” role of providing activities we fall way short in the area of making disciples.

So what do you do? When a student attends our youth group gathering and I know the students is a member of another church’s youth group I ask them, “Why are you here?” Rarely does this happen because we haven’t created a culture of pulling in students from other youth groups. If there is an issue at the other youth group I encourage them to get it fixed and I also inform the other church’s youth pastor that their student was at our youth group.

Why not teach students the importance of plugging into the church God has placed them in and growing in their faith, their worship, their ministry, and their mission of reaching others? Why do we accept church hopping among students but not among adults?

The Event Envelope

Years ago I threw sign up sheets away. You know the struggle of a student signs up so his 18 buddies sign up then student changes his mind and crosses off his name then the domino effect.
I got tired of that. I also got tired of kids looking first before deciding to go. Be a leader and sign your name up! The kids aren't broke but the system is.

So I came up with the envelope system. When we have events students register or sign up either online or by using the event envelope. It is a great way to keep track of the cash but also a way of getting information and keeping a list of who is going with better accuracy. Students can also take the envelope home to remind them to bring their money the next week. Perhaps you have done similar?

Planning The Event

We just wrapped up our 10th The Call here at Nags Head Church. With that in mind and after a super long weekend here are a few thoughts I have about planning an event.

>Establish the purpose

>Make sure the theme fits the purpose

>Acquire a speaker(s) and a band. Lots out there but remember if you want to make it a "big" event it may take a "big" name which leads to the next one:

>Establish a budget. We have pulled off The Call in the past for as little at $1500 and as much as $7,000 depending on the band and guest speaker(s) we have used.

>Decide on a registration fee (if having one. I divide the budget by the attendance goal to come up with the registration fee. It's not rocket science and it is also a risk).

>Have a plan if registrations don't meet the budget.

>Publicity - use the web, Facebook, Constant Contact, e-mail. (never mail things to the youth director "care of the pastor" because more than likely it will sit on the pastor's desk or get thrown out or passed on too late)

>Publicize in advance. We start promoting The Call in April usually and the event isn't until February. I get invites to youth events often and with little to no notice.

>Recruit a team of volunteers from your church. Decide what you need. At The Call we had folks doing registration/check in, refreshments, clean up, tech stuffs. We could not pull off The Call each year if it were not for our team of volunteers from the church. Awesome people make and awesome event.

>Keep records. We use an excel spreadsheet to track expenses and registrations of both individuals and churches.

>A quality event requires months of prep and publicity.

>Be prepared to be wiped out and tired after the event is over. (last week I put in almost 60 hours at work. Our band put in many hours as well. It's normal to be tired after a big event so plan on getting some rest. I'm taking an extra day off this week to rest and spend time with my family.)

The only event we currently invite other youth groups to participate with us is The Call. Keep in mind that youth pastors who plan ahead will often have months if not the year completely planned out. We try to limit our youth group events outside of youth group to one or less a month. Kids' lives are plenty busy today. I don't want to be a "cruise director" I want to be part of something that is making an impact on students' lives.

Several students came to know Christ this weekend and many were equipped to defend their faith. The Call was well worth the effort.

Publicizing Events

How do you publicize youth group activities and events?

Web Site

We have a calendar on our youth group web site. On this calendar we post all our events and activities. We try to have it updated at least 2 months in advance and some events are posted even several months in advance. The great thing with having a calendar on the web is the fact that students and parents can check the calendar whenever they want and see what is happening. If your youth ministry does not have a web site you can use google calendar, it's free and you can pass the link to both parents and students. If you are in the market for a web site for your group we use Snapshot, you may want to check them out.

E-Mail

Each Monday or Tuesday I shoot out an e-mail update to the parents of teens. This update gives enough info to let them know what is happening. I try to keep it as brief as possible. There are some good programs out there you can use like Constant Contact. I have discovered that plain old e-mail works for us. I include in our e-mail links to information or registration if the parents want to read more. I also include what we are studying at our youth group gathering.

Texting

Texting is always an option. A few years ago I attempted using a free texting program. Only a few parents and students signed up for it. So we quit using the program. Perhaps today it would work for us since we see more and more parents and students texting. There are free texting programs out there as well as ones designed and geared for ministry use (not free).

Facebook

We have created a group for our students and one for parents. We can post announcements on the page or even message those in the groups. You can also post links to event registrations and information on those pages as well.

The Frustration

I have learned that you can use every means of technology out there to promote and publicize your youth group events and activities some people just simply choose not to read the e-mails or messages or check the online calendar. So don't let it frustrate you. When I receive an e-mail with a question about an event or activity that has been answered in an e-mail I reply by pasting the text from the e-mail as a nice way of saying, "Read your e-mail". Sometimes I reply by simply pasting the link to the web calendar or web page that promotes the activity and includes the information for that event.

How do you publicize events and activities?

Overflow 2011

This week we have been working on a youth ministry training event for October 28-29. Duffy Robbins is coming to be our main speaker and we plan on having around 15 or so break out sessions to choose from. I'm looking forward to promoting this and seeing how many youth ministry folks from around the area attend. This is the first time we've done something like this.
The benefit of hosting this is the fact that our youth ministry team, all volunteers, will get some training (as will I) so we can be our best in ministering to students and their parents.

Web site is coming soon!

Passion

I remember when I was 18 I had a job working for a company that made cookies and had ice cream shops on Maui (rough I know but someone had to do it). Our company lost our delivery driver who ran the routes to all the grocery stores and resorts. My boss asked me if I would like to do the delivery job for a change of pace. I agreed to take on that position. It wasn’t long before I was miserable. I enjoyed being in the stores and interacting with the customers. I wasn’t passionate about riding 4 hours a day around in a van all by myself. I’m a people person. After a few months of dreading waking up and going to work each morning I went back to my old job that I loved and was much happier.

Ever serve with someone in ministry (or perhaps were “that” person) who just didn’t seem to enjoy serving in the church? They are easy to spot because often they complain. Complain about other ministries in the church taking priority over theirs, complain that the pastor just doesn’t appreciate what they do in ministry, complain about being placed on the schedule to serve “too much”.

I believe there are a couple of possible reasons to this sort of attitude. The first could be that the person simply doesn’t understand what ministry is all about either because the person is spiritually immature or they grew up in a church where ministry was confused with social involvement in the community like being part of the Lion’s Club or Kiwanas or some other civic organization.

For some in this situation of “unhappiness” in ministry is because they have been placed in a place of ministry that is not their passion. You know immediately when you meet someone serving in the church that is passionate about the ministry they are plugged into because they have a smile on their face when they talk about their ministry which they like to talk about a lot.

Don’t let the “unhappy” minister ruin your day. Don’t give up on this person. The key then is for us as ministry team leaders to help folks recognize their passion in ministry and help them connect in that ministry. Once a person is plugged into the area they are passionate about we then get to step back and watch them light up with joy serving.

Organizing Takes Time

Organizing takes time but it takes even longer if you don't keep things organized. I'm not a neat freak and this is evidenced in my office. I have always filed away documents on my computer with no rhyme or reason. The result is a constant searching for documents and graphics, etc.

Today I finally came to the point that I realized that as our church grows so does "my documents". So I spent the better part of the afternoon creating nice and neat little blue folders and started moving documents around to their proper folder. Now instead of a jumbled mess there are nice neat rows of folders in my finder. Now when someone says, "I'm interested in joining the youth ministry team I don't have to spend 10 minutes looking for that team handbook and application to e-mail to them, I simply open my finder and click on Team Applications and then send them the proper document.

If I had taken the half a minute to set these folders up as I went along I would not have spent the 3 hours today organizing. My desktop? Glad you asked. It is totally clear and clean.

I feel I can function better now. Okay, next week I'll tackle the office!
What do you do to stay organized?

Sticking Around

There is the old statistic that youth pastors don't stick around for longer than 18 months. I think that statistic is pretty much shot and not sure of the new one but I know it is much longer. Some youth pastors still don't stick around for very long at one church. Sometimes due to the church, some churches like to chew up and spit out their staff, often that's due to a very small (around 7) amount of disgruntled and power hungry members. Sometimes youth pastors don't stick around because they jumped in with both feet without first checking the water. Probably should have asked the question, "Is this church a fit for me and God's will for me?" I have heard some quit because of the finances, not getting paid enough, yet they knew the pay package before signing on. (I have heard of a few who took the job without even asking about the pay. Crazy! You have to know what it takes to support your family). Some churches go through youth pastors like a kid goes through candy in a Pez dispenser. Some youth pastors go through churches like a kids goes through candy in a Pez dispenser.

One youth pastor friend told me "I think my calling is to start youth ministry and then leave to start another one." Problem was he didn't stay long enough to build a healthy structure for the ministry to keep ticking along after he left. It's easy to get addicted to the honeymoon period.

It's hard as a youth pastor to follow a youth pastor who only stuck it out for a couple of years. Just about the time the students start to click and open up and build that relationship the bond is cut off.

How long should a youth pastor stay at a church? As long as God wants him to stay.

This weekend I get to watch another batch of seniors graduate. For some of them I have been there only youth pastor, some have even had the same youth ministry team members serving them their entire middle and high school career.

While I know that God does move us sometimes to where he wants us I'm not sure that it is God's will for us to move every 18 months, 2 years, 4 or even 5 years. I know it's different in each case but I think there is something to be said for consistency and familiarity. I'm not the best youth pastor, I still have much to learn in working with students and their parents. But I feel like sticking around and watching kids go through middle then high school and then watch them graduate is a great thing in youth ministry. They won't remember the Bible studies but will remember the relationships with their youth ministry team.

How long will I be at Nags Head Church? I hope and pray until I retire. How long will I be a youth pastor? As long as I'm effective and can lead. I hope I get to see next fall's batch of 6th graders walk across the platform on their graduation day from high school. I'll be 50!! That's stinking old.

Facebook Series

This Sunday we launch a series about Facebook. I'm excited about this series for a few reasons. I've noticed many of our "church" kids using language on Facebook that they wouldn't dare use at church. I'm hoping they discover that we should live everyday as worship to God, the church is not the building but it is the believers who make up the church. Some of the principles we will be teaching in the series: You are Who You Associate With, You are What You Type, You are Under Other's Microscopes.

For the first time the Parent Pod will be joining us. They will sit in on the lesson and then as our students gather in their Pods to discuss the lesson the parents will be gathering together to discuss together as well. I'm hoping this sparks some good conversations and communication in homes.

I'm all the way through lesson 1 and have also written up the Pod and Parent Pod discussion sheets. This week I'll be including in the parent update e-mail some verses for them to read with their kids together as a family and start to get the gears turning before Sunday.

Discipleship of Our Kids

Deuteronomy 6 is clear that the discipleship of our children is our responsibility as parents. So over the next few weeks I'm going to blog about discipleship. I believe that to be spiritually healthy I must be spiritually balanced. Same goes with my children as I "train them up". So much of my posting will be from a dad's point of view. Some of the areas of discipleship that I will post about are:

• Sharing faith
• Spiritual disciplines
• Serving the body of Christ
• Fellowship with the church
• Worshipping God in life

Questions I will look at:

• Do I teach by my example?
• What is our family's priority?
• What does the Bible teach about fellowship?
• What effect will this have on my grandchildren?

We all teach by our example that is why how we out live life is so important.
My family has priorities. What are they? Have I listed them out? How we spend our time and money as a family is a good reflection of our priorities. If we are going to teach our kids to follow Christ then the Bible is the best place to start. How we parent and disciple our own children will have a direct effect on how they disciple and parent their children. So what we do today, as a parent, has an impact on our family for generations to come. No pressure there, huh?

I will wrap up each post by stepping out of the role of dad and putting on the hat of youth pastor and weighing in as a fellow youth leader in the trenches.

Hopefully this will be a helpful little journey for some, mainly me.

Good Article for Youth Leaders

pleasing pushy parents

The phone in my office has a little red light. It’s small and not really an important feature of the phone. Actually the phone works just ...

Great Youth Ministry Tips

Killer Youth Ministry Tips from Igniter Media on Vimeo.

Simply Youth Ministry

Simply puts out a weekly e-mail newsletter that always has some free training articles as well as some great resources for teaching and ministering to students. I read the articles each week and find some good stuff to use and also get some encouragement or ideas. Below is an article I recently submitted:

change or status quo

Change happens all around us on a daily basis. Are you one who fights off change? Do you like things to stay the way they are? ...

You can also check out this week's newsletter at this link

The Blessing of an Awesome YM Team

It is a huge blessing to work with a team of adults who love investing into the lives of students.  Only once in recent years have I had to miss a youth group gathering due to illness but there are times that I have scheduled absences.  Last year I was out a couple months on sabbatical and the YM team worked together, as they always do, and the ministry to students kept rolling.  I miss a few each year for vacation time. 

This past Sunday night I missed Hang Time because I had the privilege of praying at the MHS football banquet.  I had a great time this year serving as MHS football's "chaplain".  So when I arrived at the church at 6pm the YM team had assembled the students together into the auditorium and had begun the game of dirty Santa.   Our kitchen queens did a wonderful job of taking care of the food and punch for the party.  Everything flowed during Hang Time as it normally does because our YM team is stinkin awesome.  All I had to do was show up.

Some thoughts for youth pastors:

1.  Don't do ministry alone

2.  Equip the team

3.  Trust the team to do the ministry

4.  Let people serve (you don't have to be the one that does it all)

5.  Be thankful for the team 

6.  Pray for the team

I am not the youth minister at NHC, I am one of the youth ministers at NHC.  I wouldn't want it any other way.

What are we teaching?!

What are we teaching our children, our students, about Christmas?   Yes giving and getting gifts is fun but could there be more to it?  Could we be feeding our kids the consumer mentality and creating giant consumers who go through life saying, "Give me.  Give me.  Give me."?  I personally know of parents who will go in debt at Christmas to buy their kids the latest and greatest.  What about teaching our children how to be content with what we have?  To be content with what God has blessed us with.  What about teaching our children that it's not wise to go into debt to buy the Wii, XBox, iPod Touch, 60 inch plasma?  Do you not find great joy in life when you give in such a way that you actually help someone meet a need?

The Advent Conspiracy has recently been brought to my attention.   The more I think about it and the more I look into the more I'm getting sold on the idea that we have it all wrong.  What a great way to teach our children to be compassionate human beings.