philosophy of ministry

The secret to a successful youth ministry is not organization. The secret is not talent. The secret is not advertising. The secret is not funding. The secret is the supernatural, undeserved, free, sovereign grace of God. It is His grace that prepares the hearts of kids, families and volunteer leaders you will minister to. It is His grace that removes the obstacles that Satan has thrown in your path to prevent you from ministering. It is His grace that gives you the words to speak, places you where you need to be, and makes his or her heart receptive to the gospel. It is His grace that allows the seed of the Word to take root in the soil of a soul and bring forth fruit to everlasting life. It is His grace alone.

And the degree to which we recognize that and make ourselves available to be instruments of His grace, our ministry is guaranteed to be effective .... maybe not by man's standards... but man's standards will be of no consequence when we get to heaven. Conversely, the degree to which we set up a scenario for us or Klub or our small group or our events or our relationships to receive glory for winning souls or growing saints or doing anything else eternal, to that degree we frustrate the grace of God.

If God chooses to use KLIFE in the Kingdom, it is not because we are special. It is because God is special, and He can use anything- especially the weak things of this world to confound the mighty. Our prerequisite for greatness is not found in what we do or how great we are, but in how humbly we fall on our faces before God and ask for His amazing grace. He wants to win the lost more than we do. He wants to grow the saints more than we do. He wants to train the leaders more than we do.

If we would spend at least as much time on their knees, humbling themselves before God, as they do planning and training and organizing, God would come onstage and do wondrous things for His church. It's all of grace, Beloved. It's all of grace. Yes, we train. Yes, we study. Yes, we plan, but only as a means to an end. That end is to bring tools to lie at the feet of our God and ask Him to use them as He sees fit, and to remove them if they get in His way.